2022. 6. 15 – 7. 30
Olafur Eliasson

PKM Gallery is pleased to present Inside the new blind spots, a solo exhibition by artist Olafur Eliasson, who is renowned in the contemporary art world for works that address perception. Inside the new blind spots invites audiences to reconsider conventional ways of viewing and the way we move through our environments. According to the artist, focusing on our blind spots can enhance our awareness of the here and now. Held 5 years after his last exhibition at PKM Gallery, Inside the new blind spots unveils Eliasson’s latest sculptures, watercolour paintings, and large prints that are representative of his artistic world.

The watercolour series located in Gallery 1 continue Eliasson’s investigation of ‘colour phenomena,’ a central concern for much of his works. ‘Colour,’ he writes, ‘does not exist in itself and only materialises when light bounces off a surface onto our retinas, which shows us that the analysis of colours is, in fact, about the ability to analyse ourselves.’ The layers of paint that are overlapped with only a few tones, the slight inversion of a colour scheme, and the shifted positions of the circles give an impression of depth, duration, and movement. The layering work is also repeated in Seeing sensitivity flare, which is a wall sculpture that is based on the ‘lens flare’ phenomenon. Lens flare refers to the rings and circles of light that appear in a camera when it is pointed towards the sun or another bright light, and in film and photography it is considered to be a waste product. However, Eliasson transforms this error into a central element to be explored in all its possibilities, and the astonishing result is presented before us.

The exhibition space of Gallery 2 transforms into a place of colourful experiences as Your polyamorous sphere casts variegated geometric shapes on the surrounding walls. This hanging sculpture combines all five of the three-dimensional geometrical forms derivable from identical regular polygons called ‘Platonic solids,’ into a single, harmonious whole. The work is comprised of three layers of coloured glass, one of which employs colour-effect filters, a special material that reflects certain wavelengths of light while allowing others to pass through it, resulting in unexpected colour combinations and different appearances of the construction depending on the angle at which it is perceived. In Orbital centrifugal presence and Orbital close encounter, the works are also cognized differently depending on the viewpoint and were inspired by the ‘Clelia curve,’ which traces the progress of a point as it moves simultaneously along a sphere’s meridian and rotates at a constant speed around its axis. As our eyes trace the various sizes of glass spheres that trace the contours of the curves, we encounter numerous upside-down reflections of ourselves, the surrounding space, and the other spheres. In this way, the main gallery spaces are comprised of new works that reveal Eliasson’s extensive investigation across multidisciplinary fields, such as mathematics, science, and astrophysics using various media, and will ‘de-numbify’ our senses.

Meanwhile, the annex consists of representative works that reflect Eliasson’s long-term research on light and colour. Produced in 2005, The colour spectrum series presents an approximation of the light spectrum translated into pigments using the process of photogravure in a grid of 40 framed monochrome prints, creating a seamless transition from deep violet to dark crimson. The blue colour circle, The red colour circle, and The yellow colour circle are a part of the colour circle series where Eliasson took the three primary colours as a point of departure and, in his own method, transformed these traditional primary colours from art history into a colour wheel consisting of eighteen intermediate colours. In addition to the works that show the starting point of Eliasson’s work, a reading room is especially arranged in the basement of the annex where viewers can browse thirty-nine major publications by the artist, including exhibition catalogues, artist’s book, project and workshop booklets, and studio magazines. This will help the audiences engage in Eliasson’s artistic world and within it, interpret the meaning behind this exhibition on their own.

Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic-Danish artist, who began to garner international recognition for his installation The weather project – an artificial sun installed at Tate Modern, London in 2003. Since then, Eliasson has held solo exhibitions at world- renowned art institutions, such as Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, MoMA, Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, Palace of Versailles, Centre Pompidou, and Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, and participated in international art events like Venice Biennale, São Paulo Biennial, and Yokohama Triennale. Studio Olafur Eliasson, which he founded in 1995, has grown into an institution consisting of a team of specialists including craftsmen, architects, archivists, researchers, cooks, and artists. Eliasson has been running the Little Sun project since 2012 to provide stable electricity to developing countries. As a member of ‘Studio Other Spaces,’ Eliasson has been continuously working on numerous public projects with a basis of exploring the arts and architecture since 2014, thus turning our ‘thinking’ into world-changing, sustainable ‘doing’ through diverse works.

PKM & PKM+
40, Samcheong-ro 7-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea
+82 2 734 9467

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