James Turrell

James Turrell

            James Turrell is an installation artist who works with the interesting mediums of light and space.  In his early works, Turrell covered windows in rooms with small amounts of light entering through an opening, which created a light projection.  James Turrell has also used skywriting smoke to create drawings in the sky.  Turrell also has a series known as “skyscapes”, which are enclosed rooms that have benches for the participants to sit on.  There is a hole cut into the roof that opens up to the sky.  In “House of Light”, the opening is designed to show the sky during sunrise.  Turrell also crates projections out of light that appear to be solid and have their own mass.  Viewers are often encouraged to touch these projections to prove that they are only made out of light. 

            I enjoyed researching James Turrell because he has great ideas about the culture of art.  Turrell believes that art should be enjoyed slowly and tastefully.  I also like that the audience of his installations are encouraged to touch his light projections, so that they can fully experience what they are seeing.  Hands-on learning is important to understand art, and I like that Turrell encourages it.  Turrell’s Roden Crater project was interesting to me because of how he is transforming it into an observatory.  I think that James Turrell is very interested in light and the sky, and he is successful in trying to share his interests with others.