Olafur Eliasson is taking over the iconic billboards of New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus this fall as he takes his latest piece, Lifeworld, global. You might assume that an artwork destined to be splashed across massive high-definition LED screens would take full advantage of every last, luxurious pixel. Actually, this work is more likely to have you questioning your glasses prescription.
The Icelandic-Danish artist plans to subvert expectations by producing a mesmerizing blur of color. In each public space where it will be installed, Lifeworld will beam back hazily unfocused footage of the location. In a word saturated with eye-catching images, including the big brand ads that usually adorn Piccadilly Circus and Times Square, the work invites the public to breathe, relax, and take in their surroundings.
Olafur Eliasson. Photo: Vidar Logi.
“Displayed on the advertising screens in our inner city areas, I hope the artwork relaxes our sense of depth and time to allow a moment of introspection,” said Eliasson, who hopes viewers might be stirred into pondering some big questions. “If you are suddenly confronted with the reality of having a choice, you might ask what cities, lives and environments do we want to inhabit?,” he suggested. “And how do I want to take part in them?”
“I believe our cities, as environments, can feel utilitarian when they are primarily dedicated to set modes of commuting or consuming,” he added. “Over the last year, I have worked with my team in the studio to create an artwork that contends with this experience.”
“When Londeners look up and notice Lifeworlds‘ blurred shape and color crossing the advertising screens in Piccadilly, they may find these ambiguous forms confusing. Despite the fast pace of this area, Lifeworld shows Piccadilly Circus as soft and slow – something that is beautiful and tender.”
Olafur Eliasson, Lifeworld (2024), Commissioned by CIRCA. Image: © 2024 Olafur Eliasson.
The work chimes with themes also explored in “OPEN,” Eliasson’s first solo show in Los Angeles that recently debuted at Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). There he has filled the vast ex-warehouse with a dozen site-specific commissions and other works.
“I’ve been very interested in slowness,” he said at the preview. “Slowing down is part of opening up. It’s in slowing down your attention that you suddenly see more than you thought you would see.”
Historically, Eliasson has marshalled public spaces to make a call for action. In 2018, for example, he hauled 30 monumental icebergs from a Greenland fjord and installed them on the banks of the river Thames and around Bloomberg’s art-filled headquarters in the city’s financial district. No longer could urban dwellers simply ignore those pesky melting ice sheets that usually feel a million miles away. Instead, Londoners were left to watch these great frozen hulks recede and contemplate the real world effects of reckless overconsumption.
Visitors interact with blocks of melting ice from an exhibit entitled ‘Ice Watch’ created by Icelandic-Danish artist artist Olafur Eliasson and leading Greenlandic geologist Minik Rosing outside Tate Modern beside the River Thames in central London. Photo: Daniel Leal/ AFP via Getty Images.
In partnership with CIRCA, Lifeworld will launch on London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights on October 1. For the following two months, until December 31, it will be broadcast again every evening at 8:24 p.m. It will also be screened at the same hour local time in Berlin and Seoul.
For the duration of November, between 11:57 p.m. and midnight, Lifeworld will be shown in Times Square in New York as part of the long-running Midnight Moment digital public art program.
Those living a more rural existence, or who prefer an early night, can also check out the work courtesy of WeTransfer, where it will be hosted 24/7 as part of a new collaboration with Eliasson.