When this room turned bright pink, I asked myself “Is this what drugs feel like?” Throughout the day, Aten Reign changes colors, casting the room and everyone in it into strange electric glows. It envelopes the viewer in light, and it’s a little overwhelming.
This is one of a series of aquatint prints, mimicking the kind of work that Turrell has done. The lighting on these prints was intriguing, they looked like they were lit from behind – which was strange, because intaglio prints have to be done on fairly thick papers, too thick to shine a light through. However, after looking a little more at my surroundings, I realized that they were actually lit from above. It was done very carefully, obviously, so as to make the lights line up exactly with the edges of the prints, but it was very effective.
With this piece, I thought it was interesting how it didn’t feel like it had barriers – the part that is lit is lit from behind, and it’s in a corner. With some of Turrell’s other pieces, it seems like the projection creates a barrier, like people know not to walk or stand in the way of the light. With this piece, nothing in the environment is communicating to the viewer about where they belong. People seemed to be staying at least ten feet away from the light, from what I could tell.
This piece was confusing for me. This picture doesn’t show it, but the room is almost entirely dark, with low lights on the grey square on the wall. It seemed like the grey square was moving, or that there was some pattern in the grey. I think that might have just been my eyes and brain trying to make sense of it, but it was a strange experience. Someone told me that there was actually a curve in the wall, an indentation in the rectangle. I have no way of knowing if that’s true or not, but I think it’s possible. It’s confusing, in a good way.
If you can make it, the James Turrell show is well worth a visit – more info can be found here.
If you’d like to see what I’ve been writing on the Metropolis POV blog, here’s a post about The Greenest Home and one about Houses of Maine.
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All images in this post are property of the Guggenheim.