James Turrell has taken up the challenge to tackle light as an artistic subject, rather than a property or agent of the visual scene. In his work, Turrell explores the behavior of light and plays with human perception on a fundamental level. The following light projection, or more appropriately sculpture, exemplifies the illusory qualities of Turrell’s work.
What follows is an attempt to understand how Turrell creates a 3-dimensional mass of light. Perhaps someone can chime in with a theory or further insight? This is what I have so far: Turrell is able to create the shape of a wedge using projected light. Livingstone (2002) explains that luminance contrast creates a sense of depth. Turrell applies this principle when constructing the wedge or jukebox like structure. When converted to grayscale the viewer can see that the wedge is much brighter than the background area and as a result, juts out from the wall.
The points at which the wall and floor meet in the background create two distinct perpendicular lines that the viewer mentally continues behind the foreground mass. Additionally, the mass is translucent and as a result the bottom of the mass has a lower luminance grade than the portion of the mass resting on the wall. Interestingly the edges of the wedge touching the floor and wall appear brighter than the rest of the wedge. It may be that the phenomenon is a property of the photograph, not the sculpture. However if it is not (and I think this is likely), the visual effect suggests that more light is being pressed into the corners of the sculpture, like mini-congregations of light. Perhaps this is the result of an exaggerated luminance contrast. The edges appear brighter because in relation to the wall and floor they are. Arnheim (1974) summarizes this phenomenon: “Whether or not a handkerchief looks white is determined not by the absolute amount of light it sends to the eye, but by its place in the scale of brightness values provided by the total setting” (p.306).
The question remains if Turrell was successful at treating light as an independent body. Although he has manipulated light as a subject it is debatable as to whether he has freed light from the bounds of a material concept. In the above description I unintentionally referenced Turrell’s treatment of light as a wedge, jukebox, mass that has a luminance value. I conformed to Arnheim’s stereotype—light is a property of an object, not an object in its own right. Thus I remain at a loss as to how to conceive of light as anything other than a visual attribute. As I wrote the previous sentence I thought of the treatment of “Tinkerbell” in Peter Pan and how she is sometimes represented as a moving light. Perhaps this is the answer—light must be given life.
On a final note, and returning to the quotation referenced in the beginning, Arnheim (1974) argues that we conceive of light as an internal property of an object that projects outwards. Darkness is created by the blockade of light. In the sculpture below Turrell experiments with this notion, in it, the inverted pyramid is reflected on the ground. What would be the pyramid’s shadow is not darkness, but rather light. This gives the appearance that the pyramid is radiating light, rather than simply reflecting it. In contrast, the viewer could interpret the pyramid as being in the spotlight, and thus a witness to light. Either way, the origin of light is falsified.
This was a really thought-provoking post!
ReplyDeleteThere's an old interview with Turrell here: http://www.designobserver.com/places/entry.html?entry=68 where he briefly brings up the pyramid. I will quote it here because I thought it was helpful in understanding what he is doing with the light, the chosen shape, and the space.
Turrell had described his artistic affinity towards pyramids: "A pyramid is a structure with an opening to an event outside. The light enters down the shaft only once a year and lights a figure of one of the pharaohs full on."
In the pryramid sculpture, this opening is seemingly closed. There is no event occurring outside. The constancy of light artificially produced from the inside projects the light outwards. I didn't get the perception that the pyramid is spotlit at all, though I can see how you did, which makes it more interesting since as you have aptly noted, the artist wanted to call attention to our usual associations with light and space as a means of inverting them.
The reflection on the floor suggests that "the origin of light is falsified." I think this is a very acute observation. Part of Turrell's manipulation of light is to create an inversion of the set relations we have with light and shadow. In that last photo the light becomes the light's shadow, but it does so given that fixture exists in the space that it does--a space with glossy floors for the light to bounce back from.
In Plato's cave, he talks about how individuals in the cave are caught in the illusions created by their own shadows therefore they are unable to apprehend true reality. Turrell's light fixtures seem to be a simultaneous artistic simulation of the cave and a release from the cave. The light emanating from the sculptures first strike the observer as "pre-form"--this is the artist's words. I am guessing he means that the light strikes the viewer as a physical force part of a given space before we actually see the origin--the sculpture--the form--which then grants the subsequent break from the illusion.