Olafur Eliasson, ‘Seeing spheres’ in San Francisco

Olafur Eliasson, ‘Seeing spheres’ in San Francisco


The artist Olafur Eliasson (Copenhagen, 1967) has installed five reflective spheres at the east entrance plaza of San Francisco’s Chase Center, new home of the Golden State Warriors, the city’s basketball team. Each measuring 4.8 meters in diameter, the polished globes of hydroformed steel together form Seeing Spheres, to date the Danish-Icelandic artist’s largest public work in the United States, and his first permanent public work on the West Coast. The orbs are fronted with a flat circular mirror ringed by LED lights arranged to face inward, in such a way that when turned on, they are reflected in the other round faces, creating ‘tunnel effects.’ Chained reflections and the spatial confusion they cause are frequently used in Eliasson’s creations to play with the viewer’s perception, movement, experiences, and feelings.