James Turrell
1999
Neon and ambient light
132 x 246 x 1416 inches
“Light, both represented and real, continues to serve as a potent symbol of the divine and sacred, and the contrast of light and darkness expresses the ideas of polarity, paradox, and mystery as it has throughout human history" (Robertson)
Turrell's work typically deals with light and the strong atmospheric quality that it brings to a space. In this piece, artificial light has been used to transform a simple hallway into an other worldly portal. Vital to this piece is how blatantly artificial the entire space is. This is intentional. Turrell has chosen specific lighting that reminds us of commercial spaces, of signs, of technology. The artificiality of the created space does not detract from its ability to transport visitors into a meditative state, by introducing an unfamiliar and disorienting spacial environment.As extravagant as it is, a permanent installation to create a highly controlled aesthetic experience, the piece still has a function. It is a portal, a hallway, an architectural device for moving between rooms. It is this functional, familiar space that is being transformed into a disorienting and meditative portal simply through light installation.
What Turrell so expertly points out in this sensory experience is that light, a functional creation of human technology, is often overlooked, set aside as a tool, a device for illuminating other things. Light in Turrell's case, however, illuminates nothing but the space itself. The hallway, then, is a meeting place between visitors and light where light can exist as its own entity, a character, an object of interest in its own rite.
Light, after all, is one of the ultimate themes of spirituality. Light has been used to signify God and spiritual presence for centuries, and is a lively visual and linguistic metaphor for 'enlightenment' in regard to anything from religious and intellectual understanding to moral maturity and social awareness. That Turrell has created a light installation that transports visitors to an illuminated meditative portal reminds us that the technology of contemporary life can offer mystical experiences to us, if only we allow it.