This play is a reflection on the (im)possibility of accepting diversity and the other. The fragmented body of the neoplasm—the fruit of unstable conditions—overcomes barriers, loves and denies itself and others, wanders around, forgetting its profession. It frequently and with pleasure divides, goes through dangerous palpation, questions the possibility of contact with the experience of the other. Poorly brought up but very successful, it invites us to a trans-species transition.
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Gasworks is a self-contained sphere into which the viewer is rolled, much like an MRI. As the viewer lies on their back, neon lights are timed to flash on the domed white wall periodically, causing an intense Gazfield, or total field, an experience of light as a homogenous visual field in which light has a palpable presence. Gasworks is part of a series called "Perceptual Cells," works that reflect Turrell's background in perceptual psychology. Inside Gasworks, the viewer experiences a lack of depth perception, and often cannot discern what is seen on the walls of the sphere, and what is actually seen in the mind's eye.
Artist Statement
The Gasworks and all the perceptual cells relate back to my trying to convey the joy of discovery about light that I experienced in the psychology of perception. They are not like the more classical works that I usually do. These are works that point directly to how I learned to see light this way and think about light this way.
When
James Turrell: Into the Light, June 2, 2002 - April 30, 2003
Where
500 Sampsonia, Lobby
James Turrell is one of the most celebrated American artists working today. Born in California in 1943, he grew up with an enduring love of aviation and the sky, as well as a fascination with light. His Quaker background also substantially formed his approach to life and art, with its emphasis on silent access to the “light within.” From age six, Turrell was urged by his grandmother to “go inside and greet the light” at Quaker meetings. In the early 1960’s, Turrell studied perceptual psychology at Pomona College, taking additional classes in other scientific disciplines, such as mathematics, geology and astronomy. He also studied in an experimental program at the University of California at Irvine that combined art and technology. In 1966, Turrell rented the old Mendota Hotel in Ocean Park, California. For two years, he worked on his studio spaces, transforming them into pure white boxes. He closed the studio rooms off from all outside light by painting the windowpanes, constructing walls to cover the windows and smoothing the walls with plaster. These “shells” were ideal for his exploration of projected light. Turrell’s first works exploring light used projections of white or colored light in darkened rooms. At the Mendota Hotel he also developed “Shallow Space Constructions,” in which a secondary wall is built in a room so that slits occur at one or more of its edges. The partition wall is back-lit with fluorescent lights that shine through the slits, dissolving one’s sense of the actual dimensions of the room. In the mid-1970’s, Turrell lost his studio spaces and turned his attention to flying. He supported himself by restoring antique cars and rebuilding vintage aircraft. During this time, Turrell spent hundreds of hours flying over America in search of the ideal location for his life’s most ambitious work of art. He scanned the countryside from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, and from Lake Louise south of the Canadian border down to Chihuahua near the Mexican border. The succeeding work of Turrell’s life grew out of his experiences viewing the earth and light during these flights. It was at this time that Turrell discovered the San Francisco range of extinct volcano cones in northwest Arizona. He was subsequently able to purchase Roden Crater, where he settled permanently in 1979. Roden Crater is a natural cinder volcano situated on the southeastern edge of the Painted Desert. Since 1979, Turrell has been transforming the crater into a large-scale work of art that relates – through the medium of light – to the universe of the surrounding sky, land, and culture. Turrell studied and adapted essential features of other “naked eye observatories,” such as the 18th-century observatory in Jaipur, India, for the Roden Crater project, using and adapting the natural formation of the crater. James Turrell’s artwork has been exhibited in major museums around the world, and many cities and collectors have commissioned new permanent works. Turrell’s achievements have been recognized by the Acadamie Francaise when he was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (a signal honor for a non-French artist) at the opening of a major installation of his work in Poitiers. Recent exhibitions of his work have been presented at the MAK, Vienna, Austria; the Scottsdale Center for Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ; Espace Electra, Paris; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.