Is there a difference between a kaleidoscope and a telescope? Or are the two inversions of the same thing – viewing devices that help you see… One sets out to represent the immediate world, as seen through mirrored-glass and transparent colour-objects, while the other brings the far-away closer, using a powerful optical device.
In the 1600s, Sir Isaac Newton split white sunlight into orange, red, yellow, green, cyan and blue beams and arranged them in a circular formation. In 2010, what has become known as colour theory has been studied by millions of people (including Goethe, Chevrell, Albers, and a few less-enthused art students).
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 ‘360° room for all colours’ (2002), Olafur Eliasson turns his analytical gaze to cinematic representation, producing an immersive experience of time and colour.
Claude Monet once described colour as a “day-long obsession, joy and torment”. To Olafur Eliasson however, it is yet another experiment in human perception. His latest solo exhibition, Is the sky part of a landscape, focuses on the colour spectrum right down to the last nanometre.
Room for one colour (1997)