The weather project also resonates as an ambitious, yet necessary statement. Eliasson touches on the classical iconography of the Sun—the sacred and mythological incarnation of a supernatural deity for most global countries since antiquity—by rethinking it both symbolically and sustainably as an urgent meteorological phenomenon in reason of its impact on Earth for the 21st century, leaving us with a series of contrasting feelings and positions in relation to climate change. For Eliasson, honoring the presence of the Sun on our Earth seems a meditative practice to cultivate daily, as is perceivable from his series of drawings, prints, works on paper, and photographs. These meditative and intimate works inform his experimental and scientific approach by means of observing, recording, and prototyping models, resulting in a series of study-works, a methodology and a practice that the artist conducts every time he embarks on a new area of investigation into a dialogue between the natural and the artificial. This is the case of The sunset series, 2006, a series of photographic works capturing the sequence of the sun moving beyond the horizon at twilight and leaving the trace of after-images. Poetically, these studies are also seen in the meditative and intimate dimension of his watercolor series, such as Unforgetting solar exposure, 2020; Atmospheric compass, 2021; Retinal sun memory, 2022; Rainbow portrait (inspired), 2024 up to the mesmerizing vision of the work Holding space for polarizing but inclusive conversation, 2025, which explores diaphanous images through a subtle chromatic palette. Connected to this investigation is Eliasson’s interest in the phenomenon of transparency, which he explores in his series of minimalistic glass works such as The slow life of sunlight, 2023, which explores possible encounters between polar phenomena and reflections by configuring an illusionistic perception of light, time, and space through the distortion of elliptical and circular shapes anchored in a minimalistic sculpture suspended on the gallery’s walls. With the same purpose, Eliasson also dealt with the iconography of the Sun in pictorial works such as the series Seven days of sunlight, 2026, a project resulting from three years of experimenting with color by drawing in inks diluted with isopropyl alcohol and marking irregular movements as delicate impressions onto the surface of circular canvases.

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Eliasson’s artistic and scientific research addresses a rethinking of form and composition which he explores by means of experimentation to inform his understanding of plastic practices. At the foundation of his studies is a revisiting of the ancient and esoteric tradition of the sacred geometry of solid forms that attributes sacred yet exact values to the shapes of polygonal solids. As argued by Plato in the Timaeus (360 A.C.), this sacred geometrical order consists of five solid polygons - the tetrahedron associated with the natural element of fire, the octahedron with air, the icosahedron with water, the cube with the earth, and the dodecahedron, inherently preserving the harmonical order of the golden ratio in the universe – culminating in the sphere that ideally can contain all these figures and thus symbolizes a metaphysical, ideal regime. Eliasson’s interest in the geometry of solid forms can be seen in the solar installation Care and power sphere, 2016, a geometrical light sculpture that captures the rays of the sun using solar panels and transforms them into light emitted by LEDs inside a spherical sculpture made up of multiple triangular facets, thus generating shifting patterns of light. The sculpture The exploration of the centre of the sun, 2017, an asymmetrical polyhedron that combines the figure of a dodecahedron with an icosahedron, acts as a geometrical configuration projecting an array of colors, effects, and luminous phenomena. Not limited to the physicality of his plastic and installation works, Eliasson further explores other thresholds of perception between real and virtual worlds. This is the case of Your view matter, 2022, which uses virtual reality technologies to create six different virtual spaces configured as solid geometries seen in color and black and white patterns, culminating in a sphere, while generating moiré effects, distortions and patterns underscored by a minimalist soundtrack created by the artist.

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Since 2009, in conjunction with his exploration of light phenomena and effects, Eliasson has conducted experimental research on color. His contribution lies in a new color theory that draws from the perceptual and plastic effects of prismatic colors, a model that delineates its own color spectrum by observing the phenomenon of the diffraction of light through a prism, a method that he experimentally employed from color chemistry and applied to painting by selecting a pigment tone, luminosity, and saturation for each nanometer of light in the visible spectrum with a frequency ranging from approximately 390 to 700 nanometers, all informing illusionistic phenomena in his use of circular canvases. This series testifies to the artist’s interest in entangling artistic with scientific discoveries about color. He pays homage to both the physics and the tradition of perception of light, as seen, for example, when he entered into a dialogue with the chromatic palette of artists J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich from the Romantic epoch. The outcome is a pictorial composition that uses thin glazes of pigment applied to overlapping circles in spherical wheels radiating from dark to black centers and overlapping to create either soft or vibrant nuances and gradations. In his works from the 2020s, this investigation leads him to explore three-dimensionality, as seen in the sculptural work Color experiment no.121 (Tunnel vision tomorrow), 2023, and to experiment with color through polychromatic geometrical installations such as Your changing atmosphere, 2024, which creates an interplay between light, color, and shape in a highly experiential and immersive environment.