Melting ice on Gunnar's land 2008

Ice holds not only water in a frozen state, but also time. Olafur Eliasson has worked with ice in many of his artworks. These photographs document ice as it melts on land owned by Eliasson’s friend, Gunnar Örn Gunnarsson. We see the light and weather change as the ice shrinks and disappears.

Relationships to people are just as important to Eliasson as those with the landscape, seasons and light. He describes the process of making these photographs:

‘Gunnar was a close family friend, almost like a father figure to me. I stored an ice block left over from another project on Gunnar’s land and documented the ice as it melted. As you can see in the lowest row of photographs, there is a jump where the block almost disappears. That’s because it started raining that night. I had a camera set up behind a window in a garage while I took some of the photos. For others, while I was away in the city, Gunnar pressed the shutter for me. This work was about making time explicit, making it visible.’

— Olafur Eliasson

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

Curator’s Persective

A detail view of a photograph documenting the gradual melting of an ice block in an Icelandic landscape.

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In Melting ice on Gunnar's land, we watch time pass and be measured by the speed at which this piece of glacial ice [changes] from a large chunk to a smaller piece before slowly entirely melting away.

The grid of 12 images before us were taken over a period of some weeks. We see the same trees and landscape in each image. But it's not only the ice that changes. The conditions of weather and light shift and are constantly renewed.

In the first image, the ice itself is lit up by the low golden light of the sun. In the next, the ice is covered by a little sifting of snow that's recently fallen. In other images, there's a mist, or perhaps the water behind looks different as the light changes.

We see a few of the very rare trees in Iceland in this image. The island of Iceland had around 40% tree coverage when Olafur's ancestors first arrived. They used the trees to build their shelters and farms and survive in this extraordinary place. But then there was barely any timber left. The main source of lumber in Iceland for the last few centuries has in fact been the timber that washes up on the beaches as driftwood. We see some of this used in the large artwork suspended above us, Lost Compass 2013. So these trees are quite special.

Another reason I was very keen to include this artwork in the exhibition is because of how it celebrates Olafur's connection and friendship with Gunnar, who was also a very dear friend of his father's. I was lucky enough to visit Iceland with Olafur, and we passed by Gunnar's farm. Olafur pointed it out to me and mentioned the many happy times he'd had there and how important Gunnar was to him, particularly after the death of his father. What I hadn't realised until the exhibition opened was the connection between this photographic series and the image next door, Shadow Stone. Olafur said that to take the picture in Shadow Stone, he'd actually hiked to this site with Gunnar and his father, and it was the last such journey they'd made together before his father died. So I was very pleased that these images, as sad in a way as this story is, convey something of the emotion and human relationships which are so important to Olafur in Iceland, and in the world more broadly.

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

A large block of ice sits on dry grassland under pale afternoon light. The transparent form glows faintly against a backdrop of bare trees, farm buildings, and a distant river plain.

The ice has partially melted, revealing a thin reflective layer on the ground. The surrounding field stretches toward a river and low hills beneath a soft, blue-grey sky.

A small remnant of melting ice remains amid dry grass. The distant landscape of Gunnar’s farm fades into fog under diffuse morning light.

Final stage of Melting ice on Gunnar’s land (2008), Olafur Eliasson. Only a trace of ice is visible among dark, damp soil, marking the work’s gradual disappearance.

Room: ‘Iceland’

Olafur Eliasson returns regularly to Iceland. Although now based in Berlin, he was born in Copenhagen to Icelandic parents. As a child, he would spend summers with his grandparents near Reykjavík. Moving between these different landscapes has shaped his artistic practice in profound ways. Experiencing such distinct ways of life, qualities of place and phenomena of light, was critical in shaping his focus on how we perceive and understand the world. Moving from place to place, this effect is heightened: ‘When I looked at a shadow or at melting ice, I wanted to document something I could see, but others might not register,’ he says. ‘For my Icelandic family and friends there was no need to tell a story they already knew.’

Eliasson pays close attention to his surroundings. In his photographs, we see an alertness to different qualities of light and landscape, time and its rhythms. We also see a focus on how people orient themselves and adapt to the country’s harsh climate. The Hekla twilight series 2006 captures subtle changes of light and colour as dusk falls over the snow-covered mountain. We explore a landscape of rivers shaped by glacial meltwater, snow-capped plateaus and tumbling waterfalls through Eliasson’s eyes and camera lens. A rainbow appears cradled by the landscape itself at the base of a waterfall, then is painstakingly recreated in thin veils of watercolour. From a small piece of Icelandic lava rock, Eliasson constructs a model planet, lit by a hidden sun.

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

Melting ice on Gunnar's land 2008

Curator’s Persective

Room: ‘Iceland’

Other works from ‘Iceland’:

Curator’s Persective

Room: ‘Iceland’

Other works from ‘Iceland’: