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Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023 - Photo: Jens Ziehe
Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023
Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2023
Photo: Jens Ziehe
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Probability of conscious gravitation, 2023

Five polyhedrons, constructed from glass and mirrors, are stacked one atop another in a column. The column feels slightly destabilizing or off-balance, as the glass solids overlap, with the vertices of one extending into the face of another, and the axes vary from one to the next.  
The glass polyhedrons are contained within a stainless-steel framework that outlines, ghostlike, the same forms in a different order. These five forms, known since ancient times as the Platonic solids, are the only polyhedrons that can be produced using identical, regular polygons for faces – the tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, and cube. Over the millennia they have been accorded special significance in philosophy, religion, science, and art.  
Half of each glass polyhedron is made from coloured panes, while the other half is formed from panels of mirror with their black backs facing outwards. The colours of the glass correspond to the primary tones of the subtractive colour model commonly used in print processes: cyan, magenta, and yellow. Where the panes overlap, the hues mix to form a surprising range of colours, compounded by their reflections in the inwardly facing mirrors. As viewers move about the space and take on new perspectives, the colours mix, and the work seems to constantly change and evolve.  
 
The similarly titled Probability of conscious antigravitation is an inversion of this work suspended from the ceiling.

Artwork details

Title

Probability of conscious gravitation

Year

2023

Materials

Stainless steel, coloured glass (magenta, yellow, cyan), glass mirror, wire