When light becomes art — Interacting with Olafur Eliasson's installations

Tue 30 Jun 2026

When seeing is not enough — viewing Olafur Eliasson's installations involves your active participation and sensory engagement — the artworks cannot be fully appreciated through digital captures.

Many of Eliasson's installations, such as Beauty 1993 and Presence 2025, require you to move around the space, to experience the changing effects of light, colour, and perspective. In Beauty, the rainbow appears differently depending on where you’re viewing, and in Presence you become aware of your vulnerability within the world around you.

Both installations Pluriverse assembly 2021 and Firefly city 2025 use light, shadow, and reflection to create shifting environments — designed to challenge the traditional role of a passive spectator — both tailored for a sensory immersion and quiet reflection where you can sit and watch the complex, colourful shapes and shadows.

Artworks like Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives 2025 and Your truths 2025 use polarizing filters and transparent materials to create shifting colours and patterns that change depending on where you stand. Eliasson makes the mechanisms behind these artworks visible, allowing you to understand how the effects are created, and inviting a curiosity and deeper engagement with the art. ​

The cubic structural evolution project 2004, involves your direct participation — build your own or modify existing structures from thousands of pieces of white Lego — contributing to the ever-evolving interactive installation of your ‘city of the future’.

Riverbed 2014 invites you to explore the installation, while making your way through the rocky landscape, you are encouraged to consider your relationship with the environment and the impact of climate change.

Take a tour with us through 'Olafur Eliasson: Presence'

Overall, Eliasson's artworks are designed to be experienced rather than just passively observed, the artist encouraging you to interact with his installations. The idea that the viewer is a necessary co‑producer of every artwork is a central principle of his practice.

The exhibition 'Olafur Eliasson: Presence’ is complemented by QAGOMA’s interactive mobile companion, which includes a ‘Curator’s perspective’ audio tour and a sense trail that invites you to experience selected artworks through gentle sensory prompts, slowing you down to connect with the art, it’s also great for those wanting to experience the exhibition in a new way.

Beauty 1993

The best way to experience Beauty is to immerse yourself in its sensory experience. Spend time in the space to let your eyes adjust to the lighting and the mist. The longer you stay, the more you’ll notice subtle changes in the colours, intensity, and shapes of the rainbow. ​

Slowly move around the darkened space​ — change your angle, adjust your perspective, and observe how the colours of the rainbow, created by the interaction of light, water droplets, and your eyes, shift and disappear — no two viewers will see the same rainbow as the phenomenon depends on your unique perspective. Experiment with different viewpoints and distances to see how the rainbow changes.

Beauty is not just a visual experience. Listen to the sound of the water droplets falling, feel the cool mist on your skin, and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the installation so you can fully appreciate its beauty.

Presence 2025

Immerse yourself in the dynamic environment of Presence, move around the space, adjust your eyes to the enormous glowing virtual sphere that appears to hover in space, observe how the sphere changes as your perspective shifts. The sphere’s surface features a rippling, patterned texture created by the moiré effect, this optical phenomenon occurs when overlapping patterns interact, creating a vibrating visual experience. ​ Move closer and farther away to see how the patterns change.

The sphere is illuminated by yellow monofrequency light, which floods the room and limits your visual perception to shades of yellow, black, and grey. ​ Allow yourself to be enveloped by this unique atmosphere and notice how it alters your perception of the space. ​​

Spend time in the room to fully absorb the artwork’s immersive experience, stand, sit, and reflect on your relationship with the environment and your place in the universe. Presence is an artwork that invites you to explore the boundaries between reality and illusion.

Pluriverse assembly 2021

Enter the darkened room and observe the large wall-size screen, you will see an ever-changing cosmic light show of spectral rainbows, shifting shadows, and organic shapes that resemble planetary objects in deep space.

The sequence is unhurried, evolving at the pace of drifting clouds. Sit or stand for several minutes to realise that the shapes never repeat — each moment is a unique arrangement occurring in real time.

To fully understand the work, walk to the side, you'll be able to glimpse optical devices such as glass rings hanging from above that scan the room with arcs of reflected light, and a free-standing box containing rotating discs — one disc holds various glass lenses, while the other holds a tray of plant clippings suspended in oil. Move back and forth to experience the contrast between the three-dimensional illusion and the physical objects creating it.

Firefly city 2025

To fully experience Firefly City is to engage with its dynamic interplay of light, colour, and movement. Sit and observe the sphere's rotation, the artwork features a segmented glass sphere that rotates slowly, watch how the light interacts with the layers of rotating glass creating flickering, colourful shapes and shadows on the surrounding ceiling, walls and floor, creating a meditative experience in the expanded space.

The installation creates a mesmerising, otherworldly ambiance, so walk around the sphere to see how the light and reflections shift as you change your angle, the artwork’s dynamic nature means that your perspective will change the way you experience it. ​

By taking the time to move, observe, and reflect, you can fully appreciate its intricate beauty and dynamic nature, an artwork that invites you to explore the relationship between light, space, and perception.

Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives 2025

In Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives we see two very large, pale grey lenses, they're almost entirely transparent. They have a polarizing film stretched across them. This is like something you would find in polarized sunglasses. It cuts out about 50% of the white light that moves through the filter and orders the rays of light as they move through. In between these two large grey filters are two further suspended pieces of almost transparent plastic, this Perspex also polarizes light.

As we first see this work, we see a beautiful effect of colour slowly changing. The change is brought about by the two smaller pieces rotating on their horizontal axis. But if you look closely, you'll also see that the first very large, pale grey filter is slowly rotating, like the hand moving clockwise around the face of a clock. As this filter moves, the grey effect moves from something very pale and close to white, to something close to black. This happens when the two filters come into alignment and you can see the startling effect of the colours of the two smaller pieces of Perspex shifting and changing as they intersect with each other.

Step through the space. Everything changes again, and we can see that the filter itself is very pale. The colours of the Perspex when not seen through the filter are almost entirely transparent.

Your truths 2025

Your truths is located in the same room as Your negotiable vulnerability seen from two perspectives, as both pieces utilise the physics of light polarisation to challenge your sense of truth. As you approach, pay attention to the ambient sound, a series of fans on the floor gently blow sheets of plastic, creating a scraping sound that mimics the soothing sound of ocean waves; these fans twist and turn the plastic helping to create an entrancing display of shifting light and texture.

The artwork consists of five circular filters hanging in a row in front of this curtain of transparent plastic sheets, because each filter is oriented at a different angle, you must physically move between the filters to see beyond. Peer through each lens to reveal a unique multicoloured palette based on your specific position.

The cubic structural evolution project 2004

Build, modify or deconstruct a massive collaborative white Lego cityscape in The cubic structural evolution project 2004 to help create an imaginary environment that evolves throughout the exhibition — because it’s designed for continuous assembly and re-assembly, the artwork is never finished and looks different every day. The work is designed for all ages, promoting a shared community experience.

Riverbed 2014

Interacting with Riverbed involves you physically traversing an artificial, rocky landscape installed inside an art gallery. Featuring a stream of water flowing through rocks requires you to step out of the traditional passive role of observing art and instead navigate within the uneven terrain of the installation designed to evoke a rural Nordic landscape. Choose a spot to sit and observe, feel the environment rather than just view it.

Delve into the work of Olafur Eliasson — immersive installations that play with light, colour and perception.

Olafur Eliasson: Presence
Until 12 July 2026
Daily: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Buy tickets in advance to guarantee entry. Tickets are also available at the exhibition entry unless sold out. Last session 4.00pm daily. Exhibition closes at 5.00pm.
Get tickets to 'Olafur Eliasson: Presence’

Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
Gallery 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery), Gallery 1.2 & Gallery 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery)
Brisbane, Australia