James Turrell is an avid pilot and studied psychology in college. He has art installations worldwide in over 29 countries and has created over 80 Skyspaces (which is one of his famous art series). His art falls under the theme of light and space artwork. He often integrates the sky into his artwork and focuses on the viewer’s experience and senses. As he says, “You are looking at you looking. What is important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought.” Using psychology and math, he creates artworks that are illusions, using light as an object and not just an illuminator. 

One of his art series is The Ganzfeld Series which takes advantage of the Ganzfeld Effect (“whole field” in German). These light installations fill your whole field of vision with one color. Without contrast, it can feel like sensory deprivation to the viewer.

This timelapse of a Ganzfeld being built for the National Gallery of Australia. You can see that a lot of construction and effort is put into creating Turrell’s artwork and shaping these visual experiences.

 

These other pictures are from the Akhob Ganzfeld in the Las Vegas Louis Vuitton store. His exhibition is hidden on the fourth floor and you need to make a reservation which is often booked months in advance to visit (you also have to take off your shoes). With the Ganzfeld series, they often start off looking like a 2D image of color. However, when you approach, you can actually walk through the image into a room filled with light. Akhob Ganzfeld’s lights slowly change color in a 24 minute cycle. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for the viewer to find the opening that they entered from. 

Another series is the Skyspace series. These installations feature an aperture, or an opening, which acts an an observatory and frames the sky to the viewer. LED lights illuminate the installation and a lightshow is timed to nature’s light. The lightshows at dawn and sunset are often the highlight of the Skyspaces. This piece is the Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University in Texas, and is the first piece that I knew about from James Turrell, which I found back in high school.

Skyspace Lech is an installation in the Austrian Alps. On the outside it looks pretty unassuming. You enter through a 15 meter long passageway an enter into the viewing chamber. The dome opens to an elliptical shape, reminding you of the human eye. The dome can also close and create the Ganzfeld effect. 

James Turrell is a Quaker and partnered with the Live Oak Friends Meeting House in Houston, TX, to create The Skyspace, a piece where he can combine his faith with his art. Quakers believe in inner divinity, or “light within” and the space embodies this belief. The house has an opening in the roof, used to view the sky, and has lightshows during sunset. When the cover is placed over the opening, the lights turn blue to simulate the evening sky. 

Within Without is a piece in the garden of the National Gallery of Australia. The walkway over the moat leads you inside of a pyramid. In the center is a stupa made of Victorian basalt which is also surrounded by water. The dome is a simple viewing chamber with an aperture in the ceiling and moonstone set in the flooring. 

Roden Crater is considered James Turrell’s life work, it is his most famous and anticipated piece. Started in 1977, it is still under construction and not open to the public. He bought an extinct cinder cone volcano in northern Arizona and has transformed it into a series of tunnels and openings to view the sky, sunlight, and stars. It is planned to have 21 viewing spaces and 6 tunnels. Roden Crater will be a contemplation of light, time, and landscape. Fun fact: Kanye West has donated 10 million dollars to this project. 

East Portal

Alpha East Tunnel

Sun and Moon Chamber

Intended as a naked eye above ground observatory, celestial events such as the summer solstice and the major lunar standstill can be observed in Roden Crater and the spaces are intentionally built to interact with these events. A pinhole effect is created with these three pieces. Light is guided from the East Portal, through the Alpha East Tunnel, to project an image onto the Sun and Moon Chamber. You can actually see the moon from the east portal through the sun and moon chamber. 

This is the South Space, another viewing chamber. You can see that a lot of work is put into the process even before the construction. The chamber is 3D modeled with all of its different layers and then a small scale replica model is created.