The inner cave series (1998)

Olafur Eliasson, ‘The inner cave series’ (detail) 1998. 36 c-prints each: 35.5 x 52 cm; series: 253.4 x 356.9 cm Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York © 1998 Olafur Eliasson

Though more traditional than many of the other works in Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, ‘The inner cave series’ (1998) still awakens your senses and prompts evaluation of what we are witnessing, and how we interpret this information.

Part of an ongoing photographic practice, ‘The inner cave series’ (1998) presents a grid of images taken with flash photography inside various caves. The images highlight the intensity of flash photography, and the resultant photos are curiously surreal. What is it we’re looking at? The lining of a human stomach? Endoscopic surgery photos? Light does not bounce back from the end of the cave, so the viewer experiences a similar sense of exploration to that of the photographer, not knowing what lies ahead, or how far within the cave they actually are

Eliasson’s cave photographs show us how strange the world under our feet is; their repetition and similarities point to the disparity and unity in nature, what a big world and what a small world it is, after all.