Event III: Breathing Light by James Turrell

James Turrell holds similar credentials to those of Robert Gero, having graduated with degrees in art, mathematics, perceptual psychology, and astronomy among others. Breathing Light seemed to incorporate a little bit of each discipline, whether it was the technicality of its construction or the way that one felt inside it. At the beginning you must take off your shoes and put on disposable socks before ascending a set of stairs into an undulating, softly lit, but colorful room. It’s a little hazy inside, enough to make it hard to discern where the boundaries of the room lie. In the front is what appears to be a screen, but is actually a drop off that happens to reflect the light behind you. If you walk a little further into the room and turn around, the entrance appears to have turned into another wall, the color of which vaguely resembles the lighting outside.

Looking back you see the neon light bordering the entrance, but nothing outside.

Turrell calls his art “nonvicarious,” and Breathing Light is a great example because while the physical qualities of the room can be described, it is hard to convey the feeling of being inside without actually attending the exhibit. I’m glad that I was able to attend after the Space + Art unit because given the knowledge of how other artists worked with space, I felt like I was better able to understand what Turrell was aiming for. Like Xu Zhen and Darzacq, Turrell explores how we occupy space. However, Turrell goes even further, using a theme similar to the one observed in Arthur Wood’s Cosmic Dancer by redefining how we understand “space.” While Breathing Light is well defined from the outside, the inside feels limitless, similar to the more palpable architecture in Gero’s Infinity Structures. Turrell constructs his own space, one vastly different from what we experience in everyday life. The fogginess made it hard to tell how away you are from everyone else, and though I found this slightly disorienting and uncomfortable, it was also one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. It required me to surrender the comfort associated with the certainty in knowing what’s real, an experience that can only be understand in that room.

The fogginess inside

Technologies like Oculus Rift and holographic projection illustrate the changing world of art, and like Turrell’s Breathing Light, not only redefine space but the idea of reality as well. Although these different “realities” are contained, they play an integral role in how our world is changing, something that I want to incorporate in my final project. Breathing Light was my favorite exhibit yet, and I would definitely encourage everyone to go experience it for themselves. 

Hylton, Wil. "How James Turrell Knocked the Art World Off Its Feet." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 June 2013. Web. 2 June 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/magazine/how-james-turrell-knocked-the-art-world-off-its-feet.html>.

"Step Into the Light: James Turrell @ LACMA." CultureShockArt. 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 2 June 2015. <https://cultureshockart.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/step-into-the-light-james-turrell-lacma/>.

Failing, Patricia. "'It's Not About Light-It Is Light'" ARTnews. 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 2 June 2015. <http://www.artnews.com/2013/09/04/assessing-james-turrell/>.