New Berlin Sphere
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson
New Berlin Sphere, 2009
Stainless steel, colored glass, aluminum, light bulb
140 x 140 x 140 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Vienna
Installation view: OLAFUR ELIASSON: BAROQUE BAROQUE, Das Winterpalais des Prinz Eugen, Vienna, Austria, 2015
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
- Date
- 2010
- Medium
- Stainless steel, colored glass, aluminum, light bulb
- Dimension
- 140 x 140 x 140 cm
- Credit
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection
- This artwork is part of the donation and long-term loan from TBA21 to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.
Details
New Berlin Sphere is created by two sets of twenty spirals, one set within the other, that coil to form a spherical surface. A myriad of rhomboid stainless steel panels are mounted on the outer set of spirals to form a fragmented, blackish skin. The inner set of spirals supports equally numerous panels of colored glass in magenta, cyan, and yellow.
Light from the bulb at the center of the sphere casts mixed hues from the glass panels onto the surrounding walls. This work takes as its starting point the CMYK model, a subtractive color model that forms the basis for four-color printing. The transgression of borders between inside and outside and the interplay of color in the viewer’s experience are recurring themes in Eliasson’s work.
