Olafur Eliasson – Artist Statement

Great Salt Lake is a dynamic living system. Its rhythms shape the region, and its

future is inseparable from our own. When we engage with Great Salt Lake – look at

it and listen to it – can we experience, or even feel, the immense scale of what is

disappearing? In working with Wake the Great Salt Lake, I contemplated how I

could truly honour the magnificence of the lake and acknowledge the systems of

interdependence that surround it: the microorganisms, insects, amphibians, birds,

reptiles, and other animals that live in and off it; the water, air, and soil that

compose it; and even the weather patterns that it affects.

I believe that art can add something emotional and tangible to the larger campaign

to save the lake, in ways that scientific data, news reports, and policy discussions

cannot. Together with the Welsh music producer Koreless, I have transformed over

150 field recordings of animals that depend on the lake and natural phenomena

into what I call an “orchestral parliament.” In audio layers that overlap and interrupt

one another, the parliament brings together a swarm of brine flies, migratory bird

calls, the bellowing of grazing bison, and the sounds of over a hundred other animal

species. Their non-human voices are amplified and translated into rhythmic patterns

accessible to human ears, so that the lake can be perceived by residents and visitors

in a new light – perhaps even for the first time.

The symphony is carefully orchestrated to harmonize with visuals of light and colour

that ripple across the surface of a large, elevated sphere in Memory Grove. Inspired

by nature, the forms appear at times to be organically structured and crystalline

while at other times they flow into abstract washes of colour.

After sundown, visitors can meet up in the park to witness this inspiring symphony

as though they were attending a concert performed by nature itself, a moment of

celebration that is larger than ourselves, that speaks up for Great Salt Lake.