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'The Light Inside', site-specific installation of neon lights, gypsum board, plaster, and glass by
James Turrell, 1999,
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Satellite view of
Roden Crater, the site of an earthwork in progress by James Turrell outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
James Turrell (born 1943, Los Angeles) is an artist primarily concerned with light and space. He is best known for his work in progress, Roden Crater. Located outside Flagstaff, Arizona, Turrell is turning this natural cinder volcanic crater into a massive naked-eye observatory, designed specifically for the viewing of celestial phenomena. His other works usually enclose the viewer in order to control their perception of light; a James Turrell skyspace is an enclosed room large enough for roughly 15 people. Inside, the viewers sit on benches along the edge to view the sky through an opening in the roof. He is also known for his light tunnels and light projections that create shapes that seem to have mass and weight, though they are created with only light. As a lifelong Quaker, Turrell designed the Live Oak Meeting House for the Society of Friends, with an opening or skyhole in the roof, wherein the notion of light takes on a decidedly religious connotation. (See PBS documentary).
His work, Acton, is a very popular exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It consists of a room that appears to have a blank canvas on display, but the "canvas" is actually a rectangular hole in the wall, lit to look otherwise. Security guards are known to come up to unsuspecting visitors and say "Touch it! Touch it!"
Turrell's works defy the accelerated habits of people especially when looking at art. He feels that viewers spend so little time with the art that it makes it hard to appreciate.
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I feel my work is made for one being, one individual. You could say that's me, but that's not really true. It's for an idealized viewer. Sometimes I'm kind of cranky coming to see something. I saw the Mona Lisa when it was in L.A., saw it for 13 seconds and had to move on. But, you know, there's this slow-food movement right now. Maybe we could also have a slow-art movement, and take an hour. [1] |
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[edit] Past exhibitions
- City of Anhirit
- Trace elements: Light into space
- Ghost Wedge
- Pleiades
- Heavy Water
- Afrum I
- Into the Light
- Milk Run
- Unseen Blue
- Big Red
[edit] Skyspace locations
- Sky Pesher, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, U.S.
- Untitled, Mönchsberg, Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg, Austria
- Kielder Skyspace, Kielder Water, Northumberland, England
- Tending, (Blue), Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, U.S.
- Meeting, 1986, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York City, New York, U.S.
- Upper School Lighting 2003 Greenwich Academy
- Light Reign, 2003, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, U.S.
- Three Gems, 2005, de Young Museum, San Francisco, U.S.
- Untitled, 2005, University of Illinois at Chicago, U.S.
- Deer Shelter, 2006, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England
- Roden Crater, Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.
- Live Oak Friends Meeting, 2001, Live Oak Friends Meeting, Houston, Texas, U.S.
- "Blue Planet Sky," 2004, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
- "Dividing the Light," 2007, Pomona College, Claremont, California, U.S.
- Norman and Norah Stone estate, Calistoga, California, U.S.
- Knight Rise, 2001, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
- Eclipse. Documents The Elliptic Ecliptic and Arcus, two temporary installations accompanying the last total eclipse of the 20th century. (ISBN 3-7757-0898-7)
- The Other Horizon. An overview of Turrell's development from 1967 to 2001. (ISBN 3-7757-9062-4)
- James Turrell : the art of light and space by Craig Adcock. (ISBN 0-520-06728-2)
- James Turrell. Geometrie di luce. Roden Crater Project by Agostino De Rosa. (ISBN 0-520-06728-2)
[edit] Interviews
[edit] References
- ^ Sarah Douglas (October 24, 2005), In Their Words: James Turrell and Andy Goldsworthy, ARTINFO, <http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/1365/in-their-words-james-turrell-and-andy-goldsworthy/>. Retrieved on 21 April 2008
[edit] External links
