DESIGN HEROS - JAMES TURRELL

“I make spaces that apprehend light for our perception, and in some ways gather it, or seem to hold it…my work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing.” — James Turrell

Image: http://rodencrater.com/james

Wow. Hasn’t this month gone fast. It’s that time again. This month I introduce to you, James Turnell.

In the 1960’s, while other artists used paint, metal or clay, James Turrell manipulates light, introducing art that was not an object but and experience in perception. All of Turrell’s artworks showcase light - he explores the nature of seeing. “Rather than light being a thing that reveals something,” he says, “the light becomes the revelation.”

Image: Florian Holzherr http://www.broadsheet.com.au/

Turrell is perhaps best known for his work, Roden Crater. After spotting Roden Crater from a plane in 1974, he began to turn this natural cinder volcanic crater into a massive naked-eye observatory.

image: http://web.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/turrell/

In the 1970’s, Turnell began a series of skypaces, enclosed spaces open to the sky through a hole (aperture) in the roof. Inside the skyspace the view sit on benches along the edge to view the sky through an opening in the roof. Turrell has built more than 80 Skyspaces all over the world. Hawaii and Tasmania are next. I was lucky enough to sit in one of these skyspaces at the National Gallery of Art in Canberra. Turrell ‘is exceptionally fond’ of the NGA’s permanent Skyspace, Within Without which opened in 2010. The design mimics Canberra’s native gardens, indigenous motifs and Parliament House.

image: http://www.broadsheet.com.au/

In 2013, the Guggenheim in New York, The Los Angeles Country Museums of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston each held James Turrell retrospectives. In 2015 this retrospective came to Australia and I can honestly say it was the most breath taking exhibitions I have ever been too. The show surveys each phase of Turrell’s 50-year career of James Turrell. ‘It’s about perception. It’s using light as a material to influence or affect the medium of perception.’

Image: http://jamesturrell.com/

James Turrell Respective, ends this Monday so for anyone living in Canberra or heading up this weekend I would jump off the plane and head straight there. It is an exhibition (experience) that will leave a lasting impression.

Image: Florian Holzherr http://www.broadsheet.com.au/