James Turrell’s ‘A Retrospective Exhibition’ at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art covers his over 50 year study of the concepts of
light and perception. His observation of a beam of light from a slide projector
when a student at Pomona College in the 1960’s inspired his investigations.
While the theme of ‘light’ has captured artists’ attentions for centuries,
Turrell draws upon the sensory experience of light, and uses it as his medium -
inviting viewers to contemplate the delicate and illusive nature of light
itself, how we comprehend it and how it functions within our perception of
space.
Included in this exhibition are projections, sensory
environments, works on paper and photographs. The development of Turrell’s work
is well documented. Beginning with his
Projection Pieces, the 1966 piece “Afrum”, the viewer sees a luminous cube
floating on one corner of the room, yet with a shift in position, the viewer’s
visual of the cube disappears and the light is flat against the wall. His early
light projections were studied during the years of 1966- 1974 when his studio
was
located at the Mendota Hotel in Santa Monica. There he
sealed off spaces with no external lighting, letting in light little by little
to study light, shadow, and movement. He then began to create spaces to hold
light, sometimes filling entire rooms with intensely colored light. In his
latest indoor works, Turrell incorporates technological advances. Yukaloo
(2011) from the Wide Glass series, is made of solid glass panels illuminated by
neon and LEDs so they appear as distinct floating fields of light and
his Holograms series, displays multidimensional fragments of
light, made from misexposures of
holographic film.
Turrell’s exploration of light as perception began in the
late 60s’ when he collaborated with fellow artist Robert Irwin and NASA
scientist Ed Wortz at the Garrett Corporation.
They developed a series of art and science based investigations into the
mechanics of perception and sensory deprivation. These led to Turrell’s later
work where he created immersive installations and environments that explored
the effects of meditative states on perception and the physical aspects of
seeing. Another series called Dark Spaces stresses the complete absence of
light, leading the viewer through an unlit corridor and into a sealed and darkened room. After being in the space for
several minutes the viewer’s eyes adjust, and a faint glow of light appears.
Then his Ganzfeld series allows viewers into a completely homogeneous field of
immersive light. The viewer loses the sense of what is ‘up’ and what is ‘down’,
with no frame of reference to a horizon line.
As part of his practice, Turrell has developed outdoor
architectural spaces which are documented in the retrospective but none are included
in this exhibition. They are mostly found in museum environments and other
locations around the world. I have been
fortunate enough to see “Space That Sees”(1992) in the Art Garden at the
Jerusalem Art Museum and Three Gems, (2005)at the Sculpture Garden at the
DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. These
outdoor spaces evoked for me the sense
of a meditative and spiritual experience - as they frame the sky while you sit on
the constructed concrete benches in areas of these indoor/outdoor spaces.
The ‘Roden Crater’ is an ongoing project for Turrell which
is documented in the exhibition. It is located
in an inactive volcano set on the edge of the Painted Desert in northern
Arizona. Turrell’s development of this place into a series of chambers,
pathways, tunnels and openings to the sky has been going on since the early
1970’s. It is currently closed to the
public because it is unfinished but appears to unite the concepts of light and space,
in a way that honors the wonder of our universe and our place in it.
There are two additional concurrent exhibitions showing James Turrell's work: The Guggenheim in NY, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
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| Raemar Pink White,1969 (top photo) Breathing Light, 2013 (bottom photo) |
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| Afrum(White), 1966(left) Bridget's Bardo, 2009(right) |
Less than 1 minute video of Turrell Installation Projections:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pFDkpIvHDkc
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