Olafur Eliasson, the artist behind expansive installations that often evoke meteorological conditions, will soon stage yet another massive work.
For a location at and near the coastline of Silecroft, England, Eliasson will create a work called Your Daylight Destination, which will mirror the sky when the tide is low. Your Daylight Destination will be staged in collaboration with the writer Robbie Macfarlane, who has previously worked with Eliasson, and the piece is commissioned by the Copeland Borough Council.
The council had previously led a competition for who would do the commission, with artists like Rachel Whiteread and Roger Hiorns also among those up for consideration to take on the project.
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to realise this contemplative artwork for Copeland,” Eliasson said in a statement. “In a sense, it is a humble reflection of what is already there—the beach, the water, the sky, the plants and animals—reframed within a space that invites self-discovery in a deep-time perspective.”
Eliasson’s project was described by the council as an “elongated pool” composed of a 98-foot-long steel basin set into the beach. When the tide is high, the basin won’t be visible, but as the ocean recedes, it will fill with water that will reflect the clouds above. Those skyscapes will be viewable from a platform that will enable visitors to look into this mirror of a sort.
The work is likely to be widely seen, since other Eliasson pieces in the UK have attracted crowds. His 2003 piece The Weather Project, for which Eliasson created an installation of mist and a luminous sun inside Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, was reportedly seen by 2 million people.
Mike Starkie, the mayor of Copeland, suggested as much when he said in a statement, “The piece will also be a driver for tourism—I am sure people will come here to experience our coast in this unique way, and also discover the delights of this ‘secret’ corner of the county. The hope is that local businesses will see a boost from this attraction, and all the other investment we’ve delivered as part of the Connecting Cumbria’s Hidden Coast project.”