I’ve been wanting to get to the art exhibition ‘Presence’ for ages… and finally, yesterday we did.
I was captivated by the notion of a more sensory experience with art…
Slow down, take your time.
As you explore the artworks, ask: ‘What am I seeing?’
What we first see, or sense, will change.
The exhibition brings together more than 30 years of work from Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, taking over the whole ground floor of Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA).
You can walk around the artworks or installations, reading the notes…
Or you can download an interactive mobile guide with a sense trail… that gives you sensory prompts to experience the artwork differently…
Breathe in….
Let the surface shimmer….
What happens when you slow down?
Not having headphones with me I couldn’t actually do this… but it didn’t take away from the exhibition for me.
You can engage with the installations through touch, sight and sound…
A place where mindfulness – awareness – and art can come together.
I was worried my husband, Michael, wouldn’t be as engaged in it as me.
“You think it’s too woo woo for me…” his words not mine!
But actually he really enjoyed it too.
It was just different.
For example Beauty…
This photo is me looking at it… a gentle wall of mist… where you can watch the movement of colour…
But then you can touch it…
Walk through it…
Feel it on your skin…
Hear the sound as it touches the floor…
Smell the moisture in the air.
Then there was Pluriverse assembly where you can sit and watch the vision constantly changing, evolving…
In the notes it suggests you look to the side of the screen… which confused us at first.
Perhaps it should have said walk to the side of the screen and look behind it!
Because it wasn’t just a static screen to look at and watch the colours and shapes… (although that’s what we observed most people doing).
You can actually see the lights and mechanisms producing these effects…
We were so pleased we did this… as it gave you another perspective and understanding of the artwork.
There were so many things to observe and engage with…
Including walking up a riverbed… feeling the rocks beneath your feet and listening to the water trickling down…
Or playing with more than 400,000 white Lego bricks (I’m looking at you Michael!) where you become an active co-producer of the artwork.
My only regret is that I wish I’d visited earlier… as the book that accompanies the exhibition has completely sold out!
If you are at all intrigued to see this… you’ll need to go soon, as it finishes on July 12.
Be present with art… in the art of Presence.
Ann 🙏