"Beauty"

Erin Hepper- Entry #1

Upon looking through the Museum of Contemporary Art’s website, I came across several different images and descriptions of current exhibitions being displayed. Artist Olafur Eliasson created the exhibit I found most interesting. It featured photographs, but it also included environments that he had created through the use of mirrors, lights, and projections. This particular type of art intrigued me because it never crossed my mind that this in fact could be considered art. In the past when I thought of art, paintings and sculptures came to mind, not meticulously created atmospheres. I took further interest in Eliasson and located his own personal website on the internet where he had many more images of his work.

An exhibit entitled “Take Your Time” was one that I found particularly intriguing and included many more of these set up environments. Specifically, one entitled “Beauty” was one that confused me. As seen above, the room is composed of what appears to be a grey slate floor, black painted walls, and a projected image of a rainbow like pattern onto the main wall. I was baffled by the mere fact that this piece was entitled beauty. I immediately thought that this was anything but what its title had hinted at. The dark floors seemed very cold and uninviting to me, while the black painted walls practically screamed despair. At first glance I did actually find the rainbow to be quite beautiful, but questioned if it was beautiful enough to be considered art.

Upon more research into this particular piece, I found that Eliasson was inspired when he witnessed running water flowing through a dirty, dry street in Johannesburg. When I found this out, the title and the artwork now seemed to make a lot more sense to me. Whenever there is a dry environment or more generally speaking an environment lacking something, when it becomes present it really catches one’s eye and can most definitely be perceived as a thing of beauty. For instance, in a field of seemingly dead crops a lone flower thriving is a thing of beauty. Elliason’s artificial rainbow that is projected onto the black wall has that same effect. The room is dreary, gloomy, and almost sad at first glance, but upon noticing the beautiful colors of the rainbow and how it gradually fades into the black along its edges turns around the mood of the once sad room.

At first glance I was almost confused as how such a simple set up could be considered art, but once I discovered Elliason’s simple, yet profound inspiration I began to have a much greater appreciation and understanding of the artists’ work. I quickly learned the valuable lesson that art cannot be judged, perceived, or understood at just one quick glance. It takes time, consideration, and maybe even a little background information on the artists’ inspiration to have a more complete understanding and respect towards the piece.