Ólafur Elíasson
Your Lunar Nebula

Your Lunar Nebula

© 2015 Ólafur Elíasson

Your Lunar Nebula
Your Lunar Nebula
ArtistIcelandic, born Denmark, 1967
CultureIcelandic
Titles
  • Your Lunar Nebula
Date2015
MediumPartially-silvered crystal, acrylic paint, and stainless steel
Dimensions65 3/4 × 64 1/8 × 5 7/8 in. (167 × 162.9 × 15 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
Object number2015.550
Not on view

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Description

Ólafur Elíasson explores both social dynamics and color optics in his light-filled spaces that challenge perception and heighten self-awareness. Elíasson has commented: “Color doesn’t exist in itself, but only when looked at. The unique fact that color only materializes when light bounces off it into our retinal circuits shows us that analyzing colors is in fact about the ability to analyze ourselves.”

Sometimes an underground movement is an illuminated bridge underscores this active engagement with perception. Monochromatic yellow light floods the space—draining local color—except where two skylights interrupt to allow nature to intersect with the artificial. The illuminated path serves a double function: it leads visitors from one distinct space to the other, while creating an immersive environment that is its own destination.


ProvenanceThe artist; [Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2015.
Exhibition History"Crystal: Visible and Invisible," Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, October 12, 2019–January 6, 2020.

"Color into Light," Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, November 15, 2020–November 15, 2022.


Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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