By Phillipe Blake
In the quiet, dark galleries of QAGOMA, a shimmering rainbow hovers in a mist of water, inviting visitors to reach out and touch the impossible. This is Beauty, just one of the many experiential marvels within the exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Presence. While the artworks bear the name of the world-renowned Danish-Icelandic artist, the bridge between Eliasson’s Berlin studio and the Brisbane public was built by a woman described by her peers as a “diplomatic ocean”: QAGOMA curator Geraldine Barlow.
For Barlow, curating Presence was not merely a logistical feat, but a deep-dive immersion into one of the most sophisticated creative engines in the world.
Embedding in the Studio
The seeds of the exhibition were sown during the isolation of the pandemic. Following a collaboration on the 2019 installation Riverbed, Barlow and Eliasson engaged in “COVID conversations” that drifted outside the usual professional rhythms. This dialogue led to an extraordinary invitation: Eliasson asked Barlow to embed herself within his Berlin studio to see his practice through her eyes.
What she discovered was a sprawling, interdisciplinary community of over 100 experts—ranging from researchers and designers to craftsmen in metal, glass, and wood workshops.
“This studio is so important to me, it’s so much a part of how I work,” Eliasson told her. “I’m very familiar with it, but I’d like to be able to see it through your eyes and see what you see”.
Barlow experienced the studio’s unique culture firsthand, joining the team for communal meals where researchers studying the psychological benefits of walking sat alongside those fabricating large-scale sculptures. This collaborative spirit, Barlow notes, is what allows Eliasson to conduct such expansive works, pulling on expertise far beyond that of a single individual.
A Journey from Iceland to Brisbane
The exhibition begins in darkness, grounding the viewer in the landscapes of Iceland—Eliasson’s ancestral home. Barlow guides us through works like Hekla Twilight, which captures the sun at the edge of the day, and the Glacier Melt series. The latter, a sobering collection of 35 pairs of photographs taken 20 years apart, serves as a visual testament to the vulnerability of our planet, showing glaciers in rapid retreat.
“This exhibition brings together some of the biggest challenges we face in the world in terms of our rapidly heating planet,” Barlow explains. Yet, she remains optimistic, seeing the art as a “toolkit” of human creativity and collaboration.
The Science of Wonder
One of the most striking aspects of Presence is its exploration of optics and perception. Barlow highlights several new commissions created specifically for Brisbane, including works that use polarisation to reveal hidden spectrums of colour as the viewer moves.
- The Moiré Effect: In the title work, Presence, viewers step into a room lit by orange-yellow monofrequency light. A three-dimensional sculpture, inspired by NASA data of the sun, uses mesh layers to create a pulsing energy that seems to grow as you approach.
- The Mirror Wedge: Other works play with geometry and reflection, using mirrors set at precise 90 or 60-degree angles to create “circles” of the viewer’s own image.
- The Mechanism: Unlike many artists who hide the “trick”, Eliasson and Barlow choose to show the pipes, magnets, and lenses. “He’s very interested in showing us the mechanism,” Barlow says, believing that understanding the science enhances rather than diminishes the magic.
Tenderness in a Polarised World
Beyond the technical brilliance, Barlow’s mission for the exhibition was deeply social. In her early meetings with the studio team, she focused on a central question: could they create an exhibition that offered visitors a sense of care and tenderness?
“It feels like we’re very polarised and separate in our perspective on the world,” Barlow reflects, drawing a parallel to the optical phenomenon of polarisation. The exhibition challenges this by requiring the viewer to move, look, and look again—acknowledging that our perspective is constantly changing.
As the “diplomatic ocean” between a visionary artist, a massive production team, and the Queensland public, Geraldine Barlow has curated more than just a show. She has created a space for “magic time”, where science meets spirit and where we are reminded of our profound connection to the planet and to each other.
Olafur Eliasson: Presence runs at QAGOMA until mid-July 2026.
