Artist James Turrell has spent decades experimenting with light, not just exploring light as an intellectual idea but actually using it as his physical material. Fascinated by celestial spaces and perceptual illusions, Turrell developed “skyspaces,” impressively minimal structures with succinct skylights designed to change the way viewers perceive light. Because of the meditative way in which they channel light, the spaces act as haven-like environments in which people become acutely aware of the sky’s variations.

Turrell’s new space, Dividing the Light, is an open-air public structure on the campus of Turrell’s alma-matter, Pomona College. Its opening in October 2007 was accompanied by a standing-room only symposium titled James Turrell: Knowing Light. Michael Govin, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, spoke and Turrell discussed his time as a student at Pomona, giving an intelligently nostalgic picture of his student-hood—he didn’t romanticize his youthful self yet he made it clear that his college experience had shaped him. His skyspace functions in a similar manner. It deals with the weightiness of celestial light without seeming overly romantic.

Designed to meld with the school’s architecture, the skyspace has the daunting task of contending with the large-scale academic buildings that surround it while remaining a public-friendly environment. Yet Dividing the Light holds it own, paradoxically acting as a both a welcoming community niche and an enlightened artwork that invites viewers to explore themselves as perceptual beings.

That Dividing the Light, a pristine structure situated in a public thoroughfare, would be a unifying space is far from given. In fact, public art in courtyards or traffic ways has a history of causing trouble. One of the most memorable examples is sculptor Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc, a massive wall of raw steel constructed for the Federal Plaza in New York City in 1981. Serra had a vision as enlightened as Turrell’s: he wanted to make people perceptually aware of their movements and their environment. Yet the sculpture had a divisive and alienating quality that led to its controversial destruction and removal in 1989. Despite its misleading title, Turrell’s Dividing the Light, as concerned with people’s perceptions of their environments as Tilted Arc, is anything but divisive.

Turrell began his career at a time when minimalist masterminds and color-field artists—including Donald Judd, Carle Andre, Robert Smithson, Mark Rothko, and Frank Stella—were experimenting with large, pared down forms and expanses of color. The work of these artists tended to seem empirically austere. Judd’s steel boxes, for instance, were beautiful but also self-sufficient and uninviting. They did not need the attention of a viewer to validate their existence. What differentiates Turrell from his minimalist contemporaries is the vital role viewers have in relation to his work. The minimal design of Dividing the Light is welcoming rather than foreboding because it invites viewers to enjoy a perceptual experience.

Two years ago, when plans for two new academic buildings at Pomona College were underway, the College’s President formed a committee of trustees, faculty, and students who would be exploring the possibilities for a public art work to accompany the soon-to-be-built Lincoln and Edmunds Buildings. Kathleen Howe, Director of the Pomona Museum of Art and chair of the committee, reflects, “If we were ever going to do a piece with James [Turrell], now was the time.”

The buildings would house the departments of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and Computer Science, disciplines intricately related to Turrell’s work. But members of the faculty worried that an enclosed Turrell skyspace—Turrell’s chambers have traditional been enclosed structures with four walls, unembellished seating and an aperture in the ceiling—would have undesirable affect on campus life. Howe explains, “They wanted a courtyard space that was open and usable.” The ideal skyspace would create an atmosphere conducive to student discussions.

Turrell designed Dividing the Light as an open-air, granite structure, with seating along the perimeter and an angular pool of water in the center that reflects the sky. This civilian-friendly design allows the skyspace to function as an accessible 24-hours-a-day meeting place, regardless of its status as an artwork. But the carefully calculated architecture that calls attention to the framed sky rather than to itself emphasizes the fact that the skyspace is something more than a functional gathering place: it’s a sculptural exploration of human perception.

During sunset and sundown, Dividing the Light becomes a performative lighting program. As the sky transitions from light to dark, lights programmed to respond to the rapid sky changes generate a symphony of hues in the skyspace, creating an incredibly sensorial experience for those inside. This experience has a spiritual aura to it and viewers respond to the spirituality in different ways. Howe says that she has come across people sitting in contemplative silence during the lighting program but that she has also seen groups of people break out into appreciative applause at every change in lighting. Faculty have noticed that students who hold late night study sessions in the surrounding buildings will occasionally make an exodus out to see the light chiming that occurs on the hour.

Excited by the community-wide success of the skyspace, Howe sees the Turrell piece as a foundation for the discipline bridging artwork that she would like to see more of on the college campus. As Howe relates, it has already led to philosophical and scientific debates among academics at Pomona College. Dividing the Light’s beautifully minimal design unromantically encourages discussions, queries, and self-explorations.

Written by d/visible contributor Catherine G. Wagley.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:16 pm and is filed under Industrial, Architecture, Art & Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.