One way colour tunnel (2007)

Olafur Eliasson, ‘One-way colour tunnel’ (2007). Stainless steel, color-effect acrylic, and acrylic mirrors; 100 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 413 3/8 in.; Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin; © 2007 Olafur Eliasson

Originally commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ‘One-way colour tunnel’ (2007) is now installed on the third floor at the MCA for the duration of Take your time: Olafur Eliasson.

In its original location, the tunnel was perched high in the museum atrium, containing the vertiginous skywalk. In Sydney, the tunnel seems to have taken on new life as a transportative experience, leading the participant through a fractured tunnel that is at once dazzling and muted.

Exiting from the lift on level three of the museum, you are lured into the tunnel of glass and metal by a prismatic series of multi-coloured triangles. Natural light spills in from Circular Quay creating a fragmented collage of colour and light that constantly shifts as you walk through. But once you’re at the end, turn around. What lies behind is an opaque, metallic structure — a muted version of the colourful kaleidoscope.

This is perhaps one of Eliasson’s most emotive works, producing a formal situation that allows the participant to recognise how perspective functions; how things appear, and often are, different when we look back at them. This experience is not limited to the museum, but resonates within our everyday lives.