NARRATOR:  

The essence of light takes on mysterious properties in James Turrell’s experiential installation. Take a moment to notice how the white light softly radiates from the “picture plane.” Gary Garrels, curator at the Museum. 

GARRELS:  

It’s not clear what’s going on. You begin to ask yourself: What are you seeing? Where are the boundaries? And at a certain point there’s a recognition, an understanding of what it is going on around you to create this effect, and there’s a kind of exhilaration in having solved the puzzle. And even once you know what’s happening to you perceptually, it constantly reverts back to the original impression, and that’s part of the power of these pieces. 

Turrell’s work is based in very acute observation of physical phenomena. The refraction of light, the shift of the color spectrum, the way space begins to bend, are all effects one can see if you’re up above the rim of the horizon. It also happens at twilight, when the light is changing, the sun is slipping below the horizon, and the sky will shift from pink to blues and with tonal changes in between. And they’re very startling perceptions of space and light at that time of day.