"I feel that I want to use light as this wonderful and magic elixir that we drink as Vitamin D through the skin—and I mean, we are literally light-eaters—to then affect the way that we see. We live within this reality we create, and we’re quite unaware of how we create the reality. So the work is often a general koan into how we go about forming this world in which we live, in particular with seeing."
A qualified pilot who has always been fascinated by the sky, James Turrell's work is informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions. Turrell's innovative approach to an uncharted territory transcends traditional boundaries of art, architecture and sculpture. Of his earliest Projection Series, James Turrell has explained how “The first images had a distinctive sculptural quality: the piece seemed to objectify and make physically present light as a tangible material. The space which these pieces occupied was definitely not the same as that which the room had without the image. The space generated was analogous to a painting in two dimensions alluding to three dimensions, but in this case three-dimensional space was being used illusionistically. That is, the forms engendered through this quality of illusion did not necessarily resolve into one clearly definable form that would exist in three dimensions” (James Turrell cited in: Ibid. p. 19). Indeed, The Light Underneath seems to make light tangible, an accomplishment made possible by James Turrell’s intricate explorations of the possibilities of the medium.
Creating light-saturated spaces that combine the elegance and simplicity of Minimalism with the spiritual concerns of Conceptual and Land art, James Turrell is internationally renowned as a 'sculptor of light'. Using fluorescent light, his great innovation was harnessing this ordinary source of illumination and employing it in a way to heighten our awareness of the ambiguities of perception. In Turrell’s sublimely mysterious The Light Underneath from 2006, the ethereal pink light seems to materialize, transforming solid wall into an apparent mysterious void while at once creating an illusion of a square-flat surface, calling into question our sensory perception. Color becomes a place as we are transported inside its pure, mysterious almost tactile presence.
In the autumn of 1966 James Turrell embarked on a project that would define his practice and revolutionize the definition of art making from then onwards. The artist worked from the site of what had been the Mendota Hotel in Los Angeles, and over two years transformed the interiors to create sound and light proof rooms that would be able to house his work. Armed with slide projectors the artist “sculpted” light into geometric forms onto the walls, effectively materializing the one element that has fascinated artists throughout centuries; light.
The first artist to work exclusively with the medium, Turrell's work engages with two fundamental elements of everyday life - light and space. Exploring the relationship that exists between these elements, Turrell works as both a scientist and an artist combining objectivity with artistic licence. From Fra Angelico and Caravaggio, to Caspar David Friedrich and Giorgio de Chirico among many others, light, and how to depict it has fascinated artists around the world. In the late 1960s James Turrell created his Projection Series successfully mastering the depiction of light and of which The Light Underneath is an exquisite example.
