Olafur Eliasson

This week we were sent a documentary to watch and review called ‘Olafur Eliasson: Miracles of Rare Device’. Olafur Eliasson is a Danish–Icelandic artist mainly known for sculptures and large-scale installation art utilizing materials such as light, water, and air temperature to maximise the viewer’s experience. Eliasson has been ambitious and self-assertive with his remarkable practises for around 30 years now. A couple of weeks ago during my quarantine, I decided to watch the NETFLIX show ‘Abstract’. The first episode is all about Olafur Eliasson and his practises. I found his work immaculate and very well designed. Watching this documentary about him made me pay more attention to the messages he wants to portray in his work. I really admired his work as his passion for wanting to change the world is shown throughout this work. He believes that artistic endeavour can lead to more action towards the impact of global warming. He says that nature has been taken over by humankind. What is it that the politicians are talking about? What are the scientists talking about? Olafur Eliasson wanted to get a full understanding on what is going on, to inform the people whats going on. One of his clever ideas was to transport giant pieces of ice, people could come and interact with the ice, feel it being cold, for it to slowly melt instantly with one touch. He believes people visibly seeing the melting of ice will change their minds to believing in to push for it. I recently also watched the David Attenborough documentary 'A life on our planet'. I believe everyone should watch this as it's frightening what is happening to the world due to us humans. A quote by Attenborough "An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment." I think that this message is the same as Eliassons message, however he's portraying it through artwork.

After watching the documentary for the second time, it’s definitely made me more interested in exploring global warming, and what art I can come up with. I believe that we need to look after the world and its nature, as culture has completely over powered it. I was so intrigued into exploring this subject matter that I’ve started to moodboard ideas and what sort of artwork I could come up with. I'm excited to see what change can be made if people pay more attention to the importance of global warming, and what impact it has on everyones future.