Olafur Eliasson "Your psychoacoustic light ensemble"

Sitting in the small, dark, theater-like exhibition space, orchestral sounds overwhelmed me. My body could feel slight vibrations accompanying the loud sound, while all I could see were circles of colors shapeshifting in accordance with the sounds. Icelandic–Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s solo show at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery titled "Your psychoacoustic light ensemble" consists of two installations, a series of watercolors that conjure the “evanescent luminosity of a rainbow on paper,” and two polyhedrons sculpture works. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation artwork that transforms and integrates the intangible light and sound into a unified, immersive experience. Dynamic color-changing pupil-shaped illuminations on the wall synchronize with the symphony-like sound effects, ​​operating at the same vibrational frequency and rhythm. In essence, the artwork creates a multisensory environment that invites viewers to experience light and sound as well as how they interact with each other.

The artwork echoes one of the most intriguing statements the artist has made: “color does not exist in itself but only when looked at and color only materialized when light bounces off a surface onto our retinas shows us that the analysis of colors is, in fact, about the ability to analyze ourselves.” By reframing the concepts of color, light, and sound in sculptures and installations, Olafur Eliasson’s works position themselves as an active interaction and energy exchange with the engaged viewers, uniquely contributing to their individual experience. The artist describes his works as “devices for the experience of reality,” encouraging the audience to reflect on and rethink how to engage with light, sound and how they perceive the world around them.

Despite the seemingly genius ideas and conceptual framework of his installations, I find the actual artworks fall short of fulfilling the concept. In this sense, the idea surpasses the object, requiring the audience to do more labor with their own imaginations to connect the ideas with the actual artworks—arguably, a task that could be considered part of the artist's job.

The way we perceive and interpret light and colors reveals something about our own cognitive processes and psychological behaviors, making the perception a reflection of our ability to understand our sensory experiences and ourselves in general. Color is not an inherent property but rather a phenomenon that occurs when light interacts with a surface, another entity, a person or an environment. It is then able to be perceived by our eyes and further processed by the brain to be understood as color. This phenomenon can also be considered as Schrödinger's color, which suggests that color is subjective, existing only when there is an observer to perceive it. In addition, understanding colors is not just about understanding the physics of light and perception but also about understanding how our minds interpret and give meaning to sensory information. The energy is either being repelled or absorbed: the whiter and brighter the color, the more it indicates that the object the light shines on is highly reflective and absorbs no energy; the darker and more black the object, the more it absorbs the energy. ​​Human beings are much the same. Those who are bright, vibrant and full of high energy reflect positively, while those who are more depressed tend to absorb and dwell on the energy surrounding them, pulling it inward.