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Shadows travelling on the sea of the day - Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022 - Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day
Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022
Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day - Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022 - Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day
Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022
Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day - Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022 - Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day
Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022
Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day - Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022 - Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day
Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022
Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day - Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022 - Photo: Iwan Baan
Shadows travelling on the sea of the day
Northern Heritage sites, Doha, Qatar – 2022
Photo: Iwan Baan
سفر الظلال في بحر النهار (Shadows travelling on the sea of the day), 2022, is a site-specific artwork located at the desert outside of Al Zubarah and Ain Mohammed heritage sites in Qatar’s northernmost region. This film made in 2022 documents the conceptual and installation process of the artwork.

A Tigerlily Production for Studio Olafur Eliasson and Qatar Museums, 2022.
Director of photography Eric Trometer.
Directed by Lana Daher.
Produced by Natasha Dack Ojumu.

©2022 Studio Olafur Eliasson
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From a distance, the mirrored undersides of this cluster of circular shelters and free-standing rings can be seen shimmering on the horizon. Ten of the shelters, arranged close together in a five-pointed-star formation, define the centre of the artwork. The other shelters appear to be distributed at random but are in fact positioned according to implicit axes defined by fivefold symmetry. The principles behind such patterns are evident in quasicrystals and, although only recently discovered in the West, may have informed some of the geometrically sophisticated designs found in Islamic cultures since medieval times.

 

Each shelter comprises a circular disc supported by a semi-circular segment of pipe. The underside of each disc is clad with mirrors, so that the curved segment of pipe is doubled into a full ring that appears to be passing through the mirror’s surface from the actual surroundings into the reflected space. By mirroring the visitor as well as the rings, the pavilions incorporate the viewers into the artwork in a manner that is subtly disorienting.

 

Artwork details

Title

سفر الظلال في بحر النهار (Shadows travelling on the sea of the day)

Year

2022

Materials

Steel, fiberglass, glass mirrors