JAMES TURRELL

'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!"

Contents

Past exhibitions

Skyspace locations

Books

Films

Interviews

External links

Past exhibitions

★ City of Anhirit

★

★ Ghost Wedge

★ Pleiades

★ Heavy Water

★ Afrum I

★ Into the Light

★ Milk Run

★ Unseen Blue

★ Big Red

Skyspace locations

★ ''Kielder Skyspace'', Kielder Water, Northumberland, England

★ ''Tending, (Blue)'', Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

★ ''Meeting'', 1986, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

★ ''Light Reign'', 2003, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA

★ ''Three Gems'', 2005, de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA

★ ''Untitled'', 2005, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

★ ''Deer Shelter'', 2006, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, England

★ ''Roden Crater'', Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

★ ''Live Oak Friends Meeting'', 2001, Live Oak Friends Meeting, Houston, Texas, USA

★ "Blue Planet Sky," 2004, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan

Books

★ Eclipse. Documents The Elliptic Ecliptic and Arcus, two temporary installations accompanying the last total eclipse of the 20^th 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)

Films

★ "Passageways" DVD published by Centre Pompidou Paris : a presentation of the Roden Crater project

★ Art 21: James Turrell, Live Oak Friends Meeting house, PBS Documentary, Biography in text and online clip.

Interviews

★ Omni interview of James Turrell

★ works + conversations interview of James Turrell

★ Article from ARK Finnish Architectural Review)

★ EGG interview with James Turrell

External links

★ ''Knowing Light'' exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery

★ Mattress Factory exhibition by James Turrell

★ Art:21 episode about James Turrell

★ BBC article about James Turrell

★ 43 Places: James Turrell

★ Flickr: jamesturrell

★ James Turrell KultureFlash interview November 2004

★ James Turrell: a sculptor of light

★ Roden Crater 1978

★ Roden Crater on Google Maps

★ Jonathan Jones writing in the Guardian about the Kielder Skyspace