Magic with light, water and a sponge (forget the smoke and mirrors)
Janna Schoenberger
Stepping into a dark room was what I least expected from Olafur Eliasson’s new exhibition "Motion Notion," considering his acclaimed The Weather Project, a representation of the sun and sky in the Turbine Hall, from 2004 at the Tate Modern. Motion, Eliasson’s latest investigation into light and perception, ran from October 8th through January 8th 2006 at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
As the dark hallway opens up to the installations, I am transported back to physics class, seeing the visualization of the movement of light and sound, which most resembles a sine wave dancing up and down the blackboard in front of the classroom. In the dim lecture hall, like a teacher explaining physics projecting a diagram on a large screen at the front of the classroom, Eliasson visualizes his images and hides nothing. Just like the bemused students, we are dazzled by the workings of science and nature. Professor Eliasson, an excellent teacher, explains how the images are formed; or rather lets us discover how the images are formed, simply by the arrangement of light, water and screens.
"Motion" is composed of three installations in the form of three pairs of rooms and each pair is related in a different way. They are all variations based on the same concept of light perception: light bounces off a shallow pool of water and reflects an image onto the wall. Massive theater spotlights act as the source of the image and are out in the open, taking a central role in the installation. Besides perception, the design of the installation also encourages interaction and manipulation. A wooden floor is built over the shallow waters and in some areas, the floor bulges up. A step on these protuberances presses on the water, which changes the movement of the waves and then, ultimately, the image on the wall.
The most exciting space in the exhibition is a room where one wall is completely made up of the image of light bouncing off of the water and a normal sponge hangs from the ceiling by a string. In a complete 50-minute cycle, the sponge is dropped and raised to varying heights every four minutes. During the cycle, the sponge might remain a few inches above the water then slam flat into the surface of the water, creating a huge splash and disturbance, so the waves undulate chaotically. At the top of the cycle, the sponge hovers above the water, so the waves calm down to almost stillness, which is broken by an occasional drop of water creating perfect round ripples in the still image. At this moment, the piece becomes elegant, reminiscent of a minimalist painting. As the viewer continues to observe this image, the sponge suddenly crashes back into the water. The silliness of it all brings the viewer back into the room. This is an installation with simple ingredients, like a sponge from the local grocery store.
Eliasson’s concern with natural phenomena and its perception is gracefully illustrated in "Motion Notion." Eliasson educates us in the mechanism of his installation by recounting imagery in nature and in tandem, by inviting physical interaction since the viewer is encouraged to explore their perception of the artwork.
