The first work of Olafur Eliasson’s that one encounters upon entering the atrium lobby of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is an ordinary fan swinging wildly just overhead. Mesmerizing and a bit menacing at the same time, the work, titled Ventilator (1997), serves as an introduction to a series of meticulously choreographed interactive installations that comprise the artist’s first major U.S. survey exhibition. I experienced a similar sense of heightened awareness when I visited Eliasson’s exhibition at the Musee d’art moderne de la ville de Paris five years ago. There, I had to cross a carpet of lava rock that covered the large lobby floor to reach the galleries. In both cases, Eliasson sets out to engage not just your vision but your body as well—the sensation of air currents from the fan, the feeling of uneven footing on the lava rock. This is a consistent aspect of Eliasson’s work. He wants to intensify your awareness of what you are experiencing as you interact with his work. “Seeing yourself seeing” is how he puts it. Eliasson, who was born in 1967 in Denmark of Icelandic parents, has created an impressive array of indoor and outdoor installations, mostly in...