Olafur Eliasson

17 September - 07 November 1999

Olafur Eliasson's work for Dundee Contemporary Arts large gallery incorporates three elements, each occupying a separate space.

In the main space, vertical bands of intense light scan the room from fixed points. The silent 'lanterns' are moved only by the passage of air currents around them and the heat generated by the lamps. Entering the space the viewer is immediately included in the work, occupying the space between the light source and the surface on which it falls. Shadows are created and move around the room, emphasising changes in position.

Any reading of the space is completely dependent on the viewer, who is, in this work, the centre of the world perceived. The two small rooms at the and of the main space each present two very different perceptive tools: one the mechanisms of the eye in a 'camera obscura' and the other a plethora of gadgets devised to assess the condition of the environment.

While alluding to the many systems and apparatuses conceived and produced to measure the condition of the world around us, 'Your position surrounded and your surroundings position' ultimately reinforces the primacy of our own senses in understanding our relationship to the environment.

This spectacular work is Eliasson's first solo exhibition in the UK and has been supported by the Henry Moore Foundation, the Arts Council of England's International Initiatives Fund and the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation.