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James Turrell: Into the Light,
edited by Claudia Giannini.
The Mattress
Factory museum of contemporary art in Pittsburgh is
home to three permanent installations by James Turrell,
the well-known "light" artist known for his skyspaces
and his large-scale Roden
Crater project in the middle of Arizona. In all these
undertakings, Turrell uses light in ways that make attempts
to make it more of an object or thing than an everyday phenomenon
we take for granted. His ultimate goal is to change the
way we perceive reality by changing the way we perceive
light and our surroundings. The three
MF installations are included in this publication, as
are numerous others that were shown at the museum for a
temporary exhibition in 2002-03. The permanent pieces include
Catso, Red, where light is projected through a
cut-out onto a corner (resembling the cover illustration);
Danaë, a room with an aperture to another
illuminated room; and Pleiades, an apparently completely
dark room that reveals itself after the viewer has acclimate
their eyes to the space for at least fifteen minutes. This
last work is easily the most powerful, the visitor sensing
the enclosing darkness as he or she slowly walks up a ramp
-- gripping a handrail -- to reach a chair. It is part of
an exploration on night vision, in relation to his Roden
Crater project. Its meshing of external and internal vision
is the most fascinating aspect of what's a fascinating body
of work. |
