talking about the weather

The Weather Project, Olafur Eliasson @ Tate Modern

It is most curious, as this exhibition at the Tate Modern shores up, how the subject of the weather has long shaped the content of everyday conversation. The eighteenth-century writer Samuel Johnson famously remarked "It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm."

Olafur Eliasson writes: "Every city mediates its own weather. As inhabitants, we have grown accustomed to the weather as mediated by the city. This takes place in numerous ways, on various collective levels ranging from hyper-mediated (or representational) experiences, such as the television weather forecast, to more direct and tangible experiences, like simply getting wet while walking down the street on a rainy day."

I had walked into the huge turbine hall on a cold rainy october afternoon. The installation, a giant circular plane was illuminated with a warm yellow glow that, enhanced by the heat it radiated, mimicked the sun in a most remarkable manner. And the spectators responded, as if the bare cement floors were the expanses of hyde park, and had stripped themselves of their warmer jackets and laid down "basking" in the "sun".

I can't quite figure what made the most impression that day. Was it the size of the object, or the warmth of the turbine hall that I longed for as London got colder by the day as it hurled into winter, or the mirrored ceilings that enhanced the exhibitionistic aspect of the installation? What I do know was that it had somehow made an enomous impression on me, and that I did visit the Tate Modern more than my fair share during that period.