Art 108: James Turrell - Roden Crater

James Turrell was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1943. He studied Pomona College in psychology and mathematics, but ended up earning a MFA from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California. Turrell centers his work in exploring light and space, speaking to his viewers with a spiritual awakening. By utilizing his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusion, Turrell work seeks to allow his viewers to see themselves “seeing”.

I became intrigued in Turrell’s work when I saw that his objective is to place viewers in a realm of pure existence, and he accomplishes this task with his use of light within the space. His work seems to span the light spectrum, from bright pinks, to sky blues; from tones in violet, to the deep reds of a fire. His work gives me the feeling of a sunset, with all the glorious colors that one can experience for that brief moment of time. While he has many pieces of work that illuminate color and light within a space, I became awestruck when I stumbled upon Roden Crater. Roden Crater isn’t your typical piece of art, instead it is a monumental structure that Turrell started in 1972, and is still working on it today. Sitting on the southwestern edge of the Painted Desert in Northern Arizona, from the exterior it looks like a mound in the desert, albeit a big mound in the desert. Within this crater, Turrell has constructed a series of chambers, pathways, tunnels and openings which will allow the viewers to enter and experience celestial events with their naked eye. Depending on where you are within the structure, you can either witness the beauty of the sun as it rises, or the sun as it sets. You can witness the illumination of the night sky, and measure time by the movement and shifting of the constellations. Roden Crater’s objective is to give the ability to see the sky and time, not represent it. Which in turn gives the viewer the ability to experience our understanding of the universe, and ponder our place within it.