James Turrell and The Roden Crater Poject

James Turrell

"Turrell began his career in California in the early 1960s as one of the leaders of a new group of artists working with light and space. His artworks make manifest the physical presence of light and heighten our visual perception.
Over the past two decades, Turrell's work has been recognized in exhibitions in major museums around the world; in addition, several cities have commissioned permanent works. The artist currently resides in Flagstaff, Arizona, in order to oversee the completion of his most important work, Roden Crater.

Click this link for new york times article on the roden crater

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James Turrell is one of the world's greatest living artists. Mention his name within art circles and there is generally a recognition of his name and his works. Outside of the international art community, Turrell is only known to a few. This artist of light, perception and spaces has created some of the world's most interesting art. Mention the word 'art' and most people think of a painting that hangs on a wall. Turrell's works are not of this nature and are usually spaces filled with light in such a way that you question the source of the light and your perceptions of what you are seeing.

The Roden Crater project is Turrell's most ambitious project and is being constructed in a dormant volcano in the Painted Desert of northern Arizona, northeast of Flagstaff. Turrell purchased the land with grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Dia Art Foundation and others. He is transforming Roden Crater into a space whose art is as much in the light of space and objects as it is in the spaces created in the crater. It will be your perceptions and interactions with the space and the ever-changing nature of light created by the light of the sun, moon, stars and other celestial events that will drive the art. Much like other civilizations throughout history that have built large structures that embody knowledge... scientific, cultural and spiritual, so will the Roden Crater project.'

Robert Smithson and site and non site work.

Land art and the conventional art space is a problem tackled by Robert Smithson. As Smithson was a pioneer of this movement he was able to see that art work that could not be put in a gallery could not thrive. Therefore, for all land artists documentation or  "non sites" became the work seen by audiences in gallerys and, in that way, pieces of art themselves.


Funnily enough by choosing an outdoor space i have intentionally limited myself to the exact reverse of this. I am unable to choose any 2d work at the exhibition site, due to theoretical as well as practical issues. In this way I am placing more value on the reaction of the senses and first person experience. Rather than relying on documentation and written information , The thoughts and feelings the works will provoke, will be sound or visual experiences and convey universal meaning, as the theme of the exhibition must be universal to truly comment on what it is to be an individual experiencing that point on the planet not.


For these reasons I am considering a particular piece of work by Robert Smithson, eight part piece.


 "I would say the designation is what I call an open limit as opposed to a closed limit which is a non-site usually in an interior space. The open limit is a designation that I walk through in a kind of network looking for a site. And then I select the site. There's no criteria; just how the material hits my psyche when I'm scanning it. But it's a kind of low level scanning, almost unconscious. When you select, it's fixed so that randomness is then determined. It's determined in uncertainty. At the same time, the fringes or boundaries of the designation are always open. They're only closed on the map, and the map serves as the designation. The map is like a key to where the site is and then you can operate within that sector."


Section from Smithsons website about choosing sites for work. 

This same piece was both site , in a salt mine,  and non site, in the gallery. Smithson Made these two separate pieces and highlighted the importance of the space to context of the work. 


 "I'm using a mirror because the mirror in a sense is both the physical mirror and the reflection: the mirror as a concept and abstraction; then the mirror as a fact within the mirror of the concept. So that's a departure from the other kind of contained, scattering idea. But still the bi-polar unity between the two places is kept. Here the site/non-site becomes encompassed by mirror as a concept- mirroring, the mirror being a dialectic."


Another quote from Smithson's website.


This piece of work, being placed in my chosen site, highlights the contextual position of my exhibition in terms of gallery techniques concerning land art, as well as art theory. My choice to exhibit land art and performance art on site, is something that in the real world is often impractical, due to differing times or places of the work being created, However as my exhibition is virtual I am free to indulge in conceptual harmony, and present something interesting, hopefully. 

more images of sun boxes.

The maximum number of sun boxes i have seen documented is 17, as mine is a large open air space then i would need the maximum number to get the full effect of the sound.

Documentation of exhibition site.

Exhibition site North BankThorney, Peterborough PE6 0. 

The Spiritual Aspect of nature:a perspective from depth psychology by Herbert W Shroeder

This text by Shroeder Explains the psychological study of what is felt by the individual when they experiences engagement with nature. This is the main premiss behind my curational concept. Shroeder describes this connection as being felt on a subconscious level as a "spiritual" experience of the "other" and as being vital to the individuals fulfilled sense of self, Shreoder goes on to state that the neglect of such emotional nourishment and connection with nature can lead to neurosis. This last point i feel is debatable but the text left me in no doubt that the need for the individual to experience this phenomenon is grossly underrated in our society, as a result of this i felt that this experience should be re-created and celebrated in my exhibition, Echo-location.

 Click this link to view a PDF of the text.

Exhbition space video with sun boxes sound piece.

Here is a video of my chosen space near flag fen in Peterborough, I have overlayed the sound from a video of The sun boxes sound piece that I am including in my exhibition, by Craig Colorusso .

Ana Medieta

Link - press release for an exhbition of Ana Mendieta's work
I researched heavilly into performance artist Ana mendieta when writing my essay about the relationship between the individual and nature. Mendieta's siluetta series is perhaps her most famous , Menieta would dig grave like body shaped urrows into the earth and lay in the pits she had made, she compared this epience to being re-born from mother eath, this work is about the auidience witnissing this ritual , or if not just thinkin about this ritual and what it meant to her , even what it would feel like to perfornm themselves. Mendeita was a key artits in both land art and performance art, i think these siuetta works and possibly others of hers would work well in my landscape gallery space, the link i have posted shows how other have shown Mendieta's work inside . As this exhibition is virtual and i was encouraged to use any pece of work from any time in thoery i could choose the performances themselves to occur at my chosen exhibition site, this would cirtainly be more practical as i wanted there to be no 2d work or documentation in the space.