From Observer to Co-worker: In Olafur Eliasson's Studio
By Philip Ursprung. Excerpt from the book 'Studio Olafur Eliasson'
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After the workshop staff, the architects make up the largest group in the studio. Sebastian Behmann showed me some of the current projects, including a vision for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., which explores the communicative potential of the building in order eventually to optimize it. Further on, I saw a kaleidoscope that was to feature in a planned hexagonal walk-in installation with three entrances. The intention was that viewers should be able to step into it as they would into a small summerhouse and observe a variety of refractions and patterns created by light entering from above. Just at that moment Portuguese architect Ricardo Gomes was working on a series of geometric color samples from which Eliasson would select a few for further processing. A British colleague, Ben Allen, was busily making sketches of the movements of the sun. This is one of the basics of an architect's training, enabling him, for example, to calculate how shadows cast by buildings will affect neighboring structures. In this case, however, it was not about anything so practical, but an exploration of how solar curves could be used to generate a design for an arts center in Iceland. The walls were covered with print-outs of different variations, with analogue and digital representations in a variety of colors.
A large part of the work, as Behmann pointed out, consisted of independently researching one's own ideas, sketching models, and producing series of drawings. What they were used for and whether they would be included in an actual project was of secondary importance. He told me that, from an architect's point of view, Eliasson sometimes seemed almost like a client. Behmann described him as someone who provided concepts and ideas, who approached the team of architects with precise wishes, asked for suggestions, and then selected the ones to be developed further. I was fascinated by this notion that, under certain conditions, the artist could seem like a client in his own studio, since it goes against the popular image of the artist as a totally independent creator demanding full control at every stage of a project, from first sketches to finished product.
Page [1] [2]
Page [1] [2]
After the workshop staff, the architects make up the largest group in the studio. Sebastian Behmann showed me some of the current projects, including a vision for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., which explores the communicative potential of the building in order eventually to optimize it. Further on, I saw a kaleidoscope that was to feature in a planned hexagonal walk-in installation with three entrances. The intention was that viewers should be able to step into it as they would into a small summerhouse and observe a variety of refractions and patterns created by light entering from above. Just at that moment Portuguese architect Ricardo Gomes was working on a series of geometric color samples from which Eliasson would select a few for further processing. A British colleague, Ben Allen, was busily making sketches of the movements of the sun. This is one of the basics of an architect's training, enabling him, for example, to calculate how shadows cast by buildings will affect neighboring structures. In this case, however, it was not about anything so practical, but an exploration of how solar curves could be used to generate a design for an arts center in Iceland. The walls were covered with print-outs of different variations, with analogue and digital representations in a variety of colors.
A large part of the work, as Behmann pointed out, consisted of independently researching one's own ideas, sketching models, and producing series of drawings. What they were used for and whether they would be included in an actual project was of secondary importance. He told me that, from an architect's point of view, Eliasson sometimes seemed almost like a client. Behmann described him as someone who provided concepts and ideas, who approached the team of architects with precise wishes, asked for suggestions, and then selected the ones to be developed further. I was fascinated by this notion that, under certain conditions, the artist could seem like a client in his own studio, since it goes against the popular image of the artist as a totally independent creator demanding full control at every stage of a project, from first sketches to finished product.
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Studio Olafur Eliasson. An Encyclopedia
Hardcover 12.1 x 15.4 in., 528 pages
$ 150.00
$ 150.00
Iceland's finest - an encyclopedic vision on Olafur Eliasson's art and architecture in xl-format
Inverted Berlin Sphere (2005), Berlin
Photo (c) Studio Olafur Eliasson