Glittering Olafur Eliasson Sculpture Bewitches Frieze London Visitors

Olafur Eliasson, Called Schools of Movement Sphere at New York gallery Tanya Bonakdar's booth at Frieze London. Photo: Olafur Eliasson via Instagram.

One of the crowd favorites at Frieze London this week has been Schools of Movement Sphere by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, reports the Creators Project. The mesmerizing, spinning orb, made up of a large number of carefully angled triangular mirrors attached to two concentric stainless steel frames, is being displayed at the fair by New York’s Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.

As the light catches the rotating piece, it is reflected in the mirrors, shimmering as the sculpture turns. The ever-changing appearance, different from every vantage point, is meant to evoke the constant flurry of motion seen in a school of fish.

Olafur Eliasson, Called Schools of Movement Sphere at New York gallery Tanya Bonakdar's booth at Frieze London. Photo: Ellis Pendens via Twitter.

Olafur Eliasson, Called Schools of Movement Sphere at New York gallery Tanya Bonakdar’s booth at Frieze London. Photo: Ellis Pendens via Twitter.

Schools of Movement Sphere is only the latest in the artist’s ongoing series of spherical works, which date back to 2004’s Opera House Chandeliers. The pieces explore the way the shape interacts with different environments through shadow, light, and color. “The spheres occupy space and define their context by projecting out onto their surroundings,” Studio Olafur Eliasson told the Creators Project.

Olafur Eliasson, Called Schools of Movement Sphere at New York gallery Tanya Bonakdar's booth at Frieze London. Photo: Raw Magazine via Twitter.

Olafur Eliasson, Called Schools of Movement Sphere at New York gallery Tanya Bonakdar’s booth at Frieze London. Photo: Raw Magazine via Twitter.

At Frieze, visitors have been captivated by the spiraling steel vortex Eliasson has crafted from the two steel frames. “Each trace the geodesic lines of a sphere, although in directions reciprocal to one another, creating a spherical lattice,” said Studio Olafur Eliasson of the piece’s construction. “Affixed in pairs to the small connecting spans between the two frames are innumerable triangles of mirror and blue painted steel. A single bulb at the core of the sphere projects the dynamic pattern of shadows created by the triangles and framework onto the surrounding space.”


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