If you think about art, if you look at Rembrandt and Vermeer and Caravaggio, if you look at Turner and Constable and all the Impressionists and the Hudson River School, there's a tradition of light in art, especially painting. James Turrell More Quotes by James Turrell More Quotes From James Turrell Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself the revelation. James Turrell revelations vision light We eat light, drink it in through our skins. With a little more exposure to light, you feel part of things physically. I like feeling the power of light and space physically because then you can order it materially. Seeing is a very sensuous act-there's a sweet deliciousness to feeling yourself see something. James Turrell light sweet order My desire is to set up a situation to which I take you and let you see. It becomes your experience. James Turrell situation desire Light is a powerful substance. We have a primal connection to it. But, for something so powerful, situations for its felt presence are fragile . . . I like to work with it so that you feel it physically, so you feel the presence of light inhabiting a space. James Turrell powerful space light With no object no image and no focus, what are you looking at? You are looking at you looking. James Turrell objects focus Space has a way of looking. It seems like it has a presence of vision. When you come into it, it is there, it’s been waiting for you. James Turrell vision space waiting The sky is no longer out there, but it is right on the edge of the space you are in. The sense of colour is generated inside you. If you then go outside you will see a different coloured sky. You colour the sky. James Turrell space light sky My work is about your seeing. There is a rich tradition in painting of work about light, but it is not light -- it is the record of seeing. My material is light, and it is responsive to your seeing. James Turrell painting records light We create the reality in which we live. James Turrell reality My works are about light in the sense that light is present and there; the work is made of light. It's not about light or a record of it, but it is light. Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself revelation. James Turrell revelations records light I always wanted to make a light that looks like the light you see in your dream. Because the way that light infuses the dream, the way the atmosphere is colored, the way light rains off people with auras and things like that...We don't normally see light like that. But we all know it. So this is no unfamiliar territory - or not unfamiliar light. I like to have this kind of light that reminds us of this other place we know. James Turrell light dream rain Science strives for answers, but art is happy with a good question. James Turrell creativity photography art I am not an Earth artist, I'm totally involved in the sky. James Turrell artist earth sky I've always felt that night doesn't fall. Night rises. There are these incidences in flying where you just sit there. It's one of the best seats in the house. James Turrell house night fall I like when you feel like you arrive in a very different place, with a different ordering of the reality you normally think of. James Turrell different reality thinking 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. James Turrell particular reality world I’m interested that light has thingness itself, so it’s not something that reveals something about other things you’re looking at, but it becomes a revelation in itself. James Turrell revelations light I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing, like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire. James Turrell atmosphere design fire I wanted the light to be the revelation. It has to do with what we value. I want people to treasure light. James Turrell treasure light people I make spaces that apprehend light for our perception, and in some ways gather it, or seem to hold it...my work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing. James Turrell creativity light photography
