Yellow versus purple (2003)

Caption: Olafur Eliasson ‘Yellow versus purple’ (2003) colour-effect filter glass, floodlight, tripod, motor, and wire. Dimensions variable. Tate, purchased with funds provided by the 2003 Outset Frieze Acquisitions Fund for Tate 2003. Photo: © 2007 Olafur Eliasson and Tate, London

For many works in the Take your time: Olafur Eliasson exhibition, the visible spectrum is not simply a palette of set colours, but instead represents a form unto itself. With ‘Yellow versus purple’ (2003), the artist negotiates opposing hues of the colour spectrum.

With this light installation the colours yellow and purple move from static states towards a fluid rhythm, influenced by human presence.

A theatrical spotlight provides the focus for this piece, animating a coloured disc that hangs suspended from the ceiling. As the disc rotates, two distinct patterns are produced on the gallery wall: yellow and purple ovals are cast.

While these light-images begin as distinct and strongly coloured, as the glass rotates the two projections change colour intensity and converge. It is at this point of intersection that many viewers recognise their position. For others, realisation hits when the light casts their shadow.

Yellow versus purple functions in a language of intimate simplicity as two undulating elements of light are presented as both distinct and separate in the gallery space.