A large glowing sphere dominates a dark industrial space, its surface densely patterned with small, curved shapes.

Presence 2025

As we walk into the gallery, Presence 2025 seems to move and shift with energy, flooding the room in a single vivid colour. Olafur Eliasson uses yellow monofrequency light to limit our perception to shades of yellow, black and yellow-toned grey. Layers of pattern, first printed onto fabric then created via a double layer of aluminium mesh, create a dynamic moiré effect – an optical phenomenon activated by our motion. Mirrors expand the gallery beyond the actual space it occupies, creating the impression of a complete sphere from only one-eighth of its full volume.

Eliasson heightens our perception of how we move on this planet and are connected to space beyond. We are small in comparison to the scale of the artwork yet if this was the sun, the Earth would be much smaller again. 109 Earths fit across the sun’s diameter; by this measure, standing with Presence we become giant. A key reference for Eliasson in making the work was an animation of the surface of the sun produced by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Eliasson is not only interested in the relationship between sun, Earth and life, but also in how we understand ourselves and our relationships to one another.

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

A close-up view of an illuminated orange surface covered in a dense and intricate grid of small, glowing dots that form irregular, curved clusters around the frame.

Two people stand in silhouette, looking up at a large, curved overhead surface that is glowing with bright orange light and covered in densely arranged clusters of small, curved forms.

Room: ‘Your presence’

Entering this gallery, it might seem we are again leaving Earth’s atmosphere and moving into space. Moving forward, we find ourselves approaching a vast ‘sun’, or perhaps it is another star.

Presence 2025 appears to move and shift with energy. Olafur Eliasson uses yellow monofrequency lights and layers of pattern to create a ‘moiré effect’ activated by our motion. Mirrors then expand the gallery beyond what seems possible, creating the impression of a complete sphere from only one-eighth of its full volume.

Evoking a circle of coloured moons, There are no bad parts 2025 contains a single glass sphere, but five more can be seen in the mirrors. Eliasson works with physics, optics, light; glass, paint and mirrors; he is also deeply interested in exploring how art might spark greater self-awareness. The artwork’s title draws upon psychotherapeutic ideas Eliasson has been exploring, inviting us to consider ourselves as a whole composed of multiple ‘parts.’ Are these parts fixed? Or, if heard and cared for, might their behaviour and roles change, just as the colours of the sphere change when we move?

In the gallery nearby, another radiant sphere is suspended, turning slowly to cast patterns of light and shadow on the walls. Firefly city 2025 offers a space for quiet reflection and contemplation: in this contained ‘city’, light is endlessly multiplied within nested geometries of mirror and glass.

The energy of our star, the sun, sustains our lives and our presence in this moment. Eliasson heightens our perception of what it means to move around – and beyond – this planet. He asks us to look within ourselves, as well as to perceive, recognise and welcome each other.

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

Other works from ‘Your presence’:

Experience this work on the Sense Trail