neugerriemschneider

The lure of looking through a polarised window of opportunities, or seeing a surprise before it’s reduced, split, and then further reduced

Artist Statement

At my studio, I often explore the limits of my own perceptions, the extent to which I am blind to certain things. I ask myself what surprises me and what doesn't. A surprise is a function of something being revealed that was unexpected. Yet there are things that exist within this window of an unfolding surprise, in which something unexpected arrives, is revealed, becomes known, that I am interested in exploring in my exhibition at neugerriemschneider.

I have recently become fascinated by polarising filters, as they obscure and reveal simultaneously. When they are placed over the window and shifted and combined, they provide an opportunity to experience darkness and light at the same time. You could say that it is about how I often know things I don’t see, even though I don’t see them. I am interested in the possibility of experiencing something that you are certain is not there. You see that it is not present in the room, and yet you experience it anyway. If I cannot imagine that it is possible, how does it happen?

These new works explore this paradox spatially, approaching it as something physical that can be experienced through your real-time engagement with it. The lure is mildly unsettling and fascinating. It holds the possibility of being unforeseeable.

• Olafur Eliasson