james turrell; playing with light

The piece consists of a beautifully lit square room with walls lined by benches and a rectangular opening cut into its roof. Meeting, like many of Turrell’s pieces, shapes the act of perception using the medium of a nearly tangible light, allowing viewers to experience the development of their own sensory responses over time.
Writer Ina Cole captured the viewer’s experience perfectly in this description in Art Times, “Certainly, the sense of disorientation felt once inside Turrell’s configurations is profound, as the distinction between solid and void areas is often unclear; even after the eyes and brain become accustomed, a sensation of altered states prevails for the entire time spent in the structure.”
For the summer of 2008 P.S.1 is delighted to have on view a remarkable work that succeeds both in complement and contrast to Meeting. Olafur Eliasson’s Take your time, which can also be found on the third floor, consists of a massive, rotating mirror affixed to the ceiling of an otherwise empty room.

With its precise skew and motion it plays with both vertical and horizontal orientation, creating multiple inversions of both space and self. The Danish-Icelandic artist’s work often recontextualizes existing architectural elements to shift perceptions of the places in which they have been placed. With the two pieces in such close proximity in one building allows for a delicious and challenging personal inquiry. Interestingly, during his early artistic training, Eliasson was influenced heavily by the California Light and Space movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, of which Turrell is often seen as a leading figure. Eliasson, like Turrell, creates environments that are meant to be entered and experienced, awakening viewers to their own modes of perception and the power of environment to bring such understanding into view.
When questioned about the meaning of his works, Turrell has often responded by saying, “It is about how you confront space and plumb it. It is about your seeing.” Eliasson subsequently declares that “There is no fixed interpretation of my works. Everyone experiences and understands them in his own way.”