A tall, snow-covered rock stands in a wide, frozen landscape with a long shadow stretching across the snow, illuminated by low sunlight against a backdrop of rugged, snow-covered mountains and a dome-shaped structure.

Shadow stone 2006

In a landscape of snow, ice and stone, the light of the sun is radiant and golden, beginning to split into a spectrum of colour as it strikes the tip of a stone. The stone stands alone, creating a long shadow reminiscent of that cast by a sundial.

This image was taken in the middle of the day, around February. Iceland is so close to the North Pole that in winter the sun barely rises above the horizon, and in summer lingers low for extended periods. Speaking of this work, Eliasson describes how light and shadow allow us to not only measure time, but also understand how our body might occupy space:

‘Light is significant in the depiction of spatial depth. The ability to see a space as three-dimensional has to do with our ability to imagine our own body moving through that space. When something is given explicit depth by the sun, it also gives us a different reading of our own body in that space.’

— Olafur Eliasson

– Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow

Low/no vision audio description

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Unlike many photographs presented in series across the ‘Presence’ exhibition, Shadow stone 2006 is a single standalone image. The colour photograph measures 41.5 by 62 centimetres, and presents a snow-covered plain in Iceland under low winter light. The image conveys a powerful sense of presence — of stretched seconds of heightened aliveness when our senses extend our experience out into the world.

In the foreground on the left, a single upright stone rises from the flat ground covered in white snow. The stone is irregular and jagged, its edges crusted with ice. From its base, a long dark shadow slants diagonally across the snow toward the right, reaching almost the full width of the photograph.

Behind the stone, the sun hovers just above the horizon, flaring into the frame. Its rays illuminate the rock’s surface with bright highlights. Low on the distant left edge, a small hut-like building sits near the horizon, partly surrounded by snow.

A band of broken, snow-dusted rocks forms the middle ground and stretches across the image. Further back, mountains rise up, their slopes and peaks partly veiled by drifting cloud. The sky is pale — warm yellow near the sun, and cooling to bluish tones higher above.

In the lower foreground, fine streaks and ripples show wind moving across the loose snow. For Olafur Eliasson, the human scale of the upright stone and long shadow it casts offer audiences a bodily sense of what it feels like to be in the Icelandic landscape.

The overall impression is of clear, cold light with quiet expanses marked by subtle motion. A single stone anchors the view, its elongated shadow marking the passage of time and distinctive light of high-latitude landscapes.

– QAGOMA

A backlit snowy scene with a vertical, ice-coated rock formation, its edges glowing in a bright haze, with a low dome-shaped structure visible in the background.

Snowy terrain with a vertical, ice-covered rock in the foreground casting a long shadow, and bright backlight diffusing over the surrounding snow-covered hills.

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

Shadow stone 2006

Room: ‘Iceland’

Other works from ‘Iceland’:

Room: ‘Iceland’

Other works from ‘Iceland’: