"My desire is to set up a situation to which I can take you and let you see. I am interested in light because of my interest in our spiritual nature and the things that empower us. My art deals with light itself, not as the bearer of revelation, but as revelation itself."
We discovered James Turrell and Skyspaces after watching an excellent BBC Imagine programme in the November of 2008. It was all about light and how that can be manipulated.
We were introduced to James Turrell and what he wants to achieve as an artist. Alan Yentob was able to visit the huge project the Turrell has taken on creating an observatory on the remains of a crater in Arizona's painted Desert which one day I hope we will be able to visit ourselves. It remains a work in progress. Read more about the Roden Crater Project here.
James Turrell has been building rooms to which he has given the name 'Skyspace' since 1974.
A chamber of certain dimensions is constructed; containing only seating, lighting and an aperture in the ceiling, in which visitors can sit and gaze at the sky. On a visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in the summer of 2009 we visited The Deer Shelter, a Skyspace set up by Turrell in 2006 with funding from The Art Fund. I find this space hugely meditative and can sit for a long time just watching as the sky changes. It makes me focus on looking, on filling up my eyes.
What I also love about this place is that when you leave you look at the sky differently, even without the frame effect of the ceiling window.
Turrell has said of the skies here that:
'The softness of light you find here is extraordinary. Britain has a maritime climate: this is an island in the sea. There's a moisture in the air, so you have a really soft light, and it's often very variegated as well, with lighting events that come from openings in the clouds and so on.'
We then discovered that there is another Skyspace close to us at Kielder Water in Northumberland. It's called Cat Cairn and is part of the outside art project around the lake. This has a circular opening. It was here that we managed to see the effects of the lighting put in to spaces to trick your eyes at dawn and dusk and to make you see unusual colours in the sky.
Read more about James Turrell here.
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