Light Artist - James Turrell

Light is an illuminating agent or source, as the sun, a lamp, or a beacon (dictionary.com).

James Turrell

James Turrell is a light artist who works with light and space and the way that light can enter a space to portray a meaning without words that can still stimulate the senses. Turrell works with the light to give the people viewing it a pure lighting experience.  He has spent years working with light and exploring light as an intellectual idea and by using it as a physical material in his work.  He is fascinated by spaces and the perceptual illusions light can cause. I think that how he creates these light effects was very intriguing and my favorite piece from his body of work is his Dividing the Light exhibit.

Dividing the Light

This one is called Dividing the Light, which is another one of James Turrell’s works, which is on permanent exhibit at the Pomona College Museum of Art.  This exhibit shows how Turrell uses architecture to play with rays of light to create his own light phenomenon.  I thought it was interesting how he used to the marble slab placed directly below the opening in the ceiling to reflect the light coming in from the skylight and create a mirror effect of the space around the smooth slab.

Dividing the Light

Dividing the Light

End Around

In this work James Turrell uses two different kinds of light sources, neon lights and florescent lights, in the space.  The fluorescent lights are placed outside of the tunnel to create a luminous color throughout the area.  Then the strips of blue neon lights are placed behind glass framing the doorway at the end of the tunnel.  The combination of these two lights create a lighting effect all their own because when you mix two different types of light it messes with your eyes in strange ways.  This piece has a atmosphere to it that will have the view transfixed.

End Around

Entrance to End Around

Tadao Ando’s work is somewhat similar to that of James Turrell’s in the way that he too finds artistic ways to have light enter into a space to create a unique light phenomenon.

For more work from James Turrell and my source of information for this page click here.