Olafur Eliasson - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 16, 2009 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Galerie neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Private collection, New York

  • Exhibited

    New York, Maxwell Davidson Gallery/ Davidson Contemporary, Sculpture: Post War to Present, 11 May - 26 June, 2009

  • Literature

    A. Engberg-Pedersen, ed., Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia, Cologne, 2008, p. 452 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Olafur Eliasson, although somewhat newly anointed, has become synonymous for his impeccable, seemingly magical, interventions of elephantine arenas through an articulation of elemental forces, technology and atmosphere. Eliasson uses the ephemeral and intangible in a manner that encompasses his viewers within the work, forcing them to reconsider their previously conceived notions of how they interact with their surroundings. The present work is mesmerizing sculptural installation comprised of two stainless steel columns with a propeller installed atop each tower. A heat lamp at the base of each column creates energy causing the propellers to rotate. Hailing from the same body of work as his critically acclaimed 2003 Tate Modern installation The Weather Project, the present lot is a poignant investigation into one of the most prominent issues permeating Olafur Eliasson's oeuvre, climate change. ‘Environmental concerns have become a common point of reference, and it seemed relevant to do a project that relates to this issue. I find it very interesting that climate change has caused a new kind of collectivity and ecological awareness to arise. I say ‘new' because it differs from the more dogmatic ideas of collectivity that we experienced in the 1970s. The challenge today is to understand some of our actions as having dire consequences for the environment, to see ourselves in complex relations with both our surroundings and other people. The research on movement and environmentally with regard to how we navigate the world- a world that's shared and changeable, if we only recognize the need for this. The new ecological movements can be used to put pressure on objects such as cars, to create a demand for sustainable ways of moving.' (Olafur Eliasson in conversation with Philip Ursprung in O. Eliasson, Studio Olafur Eliasson, Cologne, 2008, pp. 451-452)  

23

Two Hot Air Columns

2005
Stainless steel, 2 heat lamps, wire, plug.
174 x 40.5 x 45.5 cm. (68 1/2 x 16 x 18 in). & 192 x 40.5 x 44.5 cm. (75 1/2 x 16 x 17 1/2 in).
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Estimate
£80,000 - 120,000 Ω♠

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Oct 2009
London