A Tate sunset

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A remarkable new work of art will transform the way you see - to black and yellow.

It is the latest temporary exhibit in the Unilever Series of works that try to fill Tate Modern's titanic 155-metre-long Turbine Hall.

Last year Anish Kapoor dominated the space to critical acclaim with his enormous, breathtaking sculpture, Marsyas.

Now Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, 36, has struck on an ingenious way to follow Kapoor.

What fills Turbine Hall in his new work, entitled The Weather Project, is mono-frequency light which beams out from an enormous "sun" at the end of the hall.

In fact the "sun" is huge steel frame holding 204 low-sodium monofrequency lights. In front of those lights is a screen of material that makes their rays look like a solid, sun-like source.

Tate curator Susan May, who has planned The Weather Project with Eliasson for the past two years, explained: "They emit light at such a narrow frequency that, except for the yellow, all other colours are invisible.

"Everything is turned into a black and white landscape - although strictly speaking it is more yellow and black, I suppose."

Adding to the disconcerting experience of seeing the world like an old movie is the slowly shifting "mist" that fills Turbine Hall, a sugar-based haze pumped into the room by 19 special machines.

Finally, as you approach the "sun" and its eerie effect grows ever stronger, there is one final doubletake waiting - look up at the Turbine Hall's roof and you see yourself.

Eliasson has covered its entire roof with specially-built mirror panels to make it appear the hall is twice its actual height.

Speaking to the Standard, Copenhagen-born Eliasson said he was looking forward to seeing how Tate Modern visitors would react to his sensory assault.

He added: "The actual experience of the light is very strange because it triggers a lot of perceptual phenomena.

"Looking at your friends, looking around, everything appears very different.

"Some say it is beautiful but others say it is ugly, or terrible and disturbing. It is an open-ended thing - you have to learn how to see again."

* The Unilever Series: Olafur Eliasson, Tate Modern, ends 21 March 2004, free.

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