Sun in my Hand

They experimented with Little Sun at a Rohingya refugee camp in Delhi in June last year. A school within the camp had children use these lamps where there was no electricity. “What I love about it is the unpredictable potential of light. I’ve seen people smile as they hold this palm-sized lamp in their hands. It’s no longer just a light,it’s a work of art,” he says. Eliasson’s projects done in public spaces include concert halls,museum rooftops and waterfalls are spatial experiments with light,water and temperature. How has he managed scale with Little Sun? “Once,at our studio,we had a ‘tickle’ experiment. People would tickle each other,much like the laughter clubs in India. It was a way of investigating inter-dependence and social nuances. I have worked at different scales,but the media only pompously feature my larger work,” says he. At the Tate Modern,London,last year,Eliasson experimented with the lamp in a different way. For an exhibition,the lights were turned out and people only had the lamp to lead the way. “Suddenly from losing their sense of orientation,they become a source of power,they became their own guide,” says Eliasson.