Road Trip: Learning to look with James Turrell
Notes from North Adams, Massachusetts
On the drive home from Martha’s Vineyard to Toronto, we made a pit stop in North Adams to spend a couple of days immersed in art. I highly recommend making a detour if you’re in the area.
The town has two notable museums: The Clark Art Institute and MASS MoCA. Towards the end of the day at MASS MoCA, I entered a room, not entirely sure what I was in for. I walked through a short hallway in complete darkness, with only a banister leading me to my eventual seat, where I sat in the pitch-dark for 15 minutes. During that time, I meditated and coaxed my eyes into seeing a faint light emanating from somewhere within. Ironically, this might be the piece that taught me the most about looking at art.
James Turrell uses light and its absence to the viewer’s psychological benefit. MassMoca has the most complete collection of works by the artist that I’ve experienced. Photos, of course, also don’t capture the experience of being bathed in light or watching the sun track through one of Turrell’s Skyspaces.
But I can try to describe the feeling: In Turrell’s installations, I felt the physical presence of my eyes. Arguably one of the most important organs to art seeing, I almost never think about my eyes when viewing art. With Turrell, it’s different: I felt my eyes dilate and constrict, I moved my eyes around to use the full range of vision, looking at art from the periphery.
In Perfectly Clear (Ganzfeld), I stood in a large room that slanted upwards and outwards until a sudden drop in the ground where soft hues of light emerged. In that room, I let my eyes go soft. I meditated on the perception of colour. Next door, in Hind Sight, the aforementioned dark space, my eyes played tricks on me, fabricating colour and dancing light where there was none. (Note: You have to book a reservation to view both of these installations.)
As I went on my day, I could see clearer. I realized that looking at art was a muscle to be exercised.
James Turrell Around the World 🌎
Roden Crater Project, Arizona: Turrell’s largest and most ambitious project. “Turrell has fashioned Roden Crater into a site containing tunnels and apertures that open onto pristine skies.” It’s currently closed to the public as the project progresses.
James Turrell Museum at Bodega Colomé, Argentina: The only museum dedicated solely to exhibiting works by Turrell, located on a vineyard in Salta, Argentina. I highly recommend a stay at Finca Valentina.
Centre for International Light Art, Germany: It will come as no surprise that ZFIL has a significant collection of works by Turrell.
Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Japan: Special night viewing tickets are available so you can view their James Turrell Open Sky installation as the sun sets. Even better, you can book a hotel room to stay at the museum overnight.
MoMA PS1, New York: Potentially a closer-to-home Turrell installation for many of you reading this.
Installation at Bay & Adelaide, Toronto: I wrote about the surprising Turrell tucked away in Toronto for the Toronto Star last year.
Benton Museum of Art, California: Since this skyspace activates for 35-42 minutes before and after sunrise and sunset, the museum conveniently links to sunrise and sunset times in LA on their website.
If you learned about Art Forecast through the mention in The Substack Post, welcome! I’m very happy you’re here. It’s been so fulfilling to have a space to connect directly with so many art lovers. Here’s a very brief introduction for the uninitiated:
I have more than a decade experience writing about art. I’ve written for Artforum, Aperture, Archictural Digest, Canadian Art, Garage Magazine, SSENSE, the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Vogue. This newsletter is a place where I can explore all the angles of the art world that interest me: from collecting to art fairs to meeting artists. I live in Toronto with my husband and cat.
Here are a few pieces from the last year I’m proud of: Art at the Olympic Games, Are Art Critics Just Failed Artists? (no), Art Through the Eyes of Yelp, and Artists Should Have Newsletters.
Sidenote:
If you decide to visit North Adams, we had a great time staying at the Tourists Hotel (thank you, Emma Bain of two seven two for the recommendation). Art Omi and Yale University Art Gallery are also great road trip add-ons in the vicinity.
I saw my first James Turrell installation at Copenhagen Contemporary this spring. It gives a child-like sense of wonder, of magic, of “how’d he do that?” It truly felt like he was making something out of nothing.
One of my favorite artist. Roden Crater is on my bucket list of his works to see. I’ve been to multiple sky spaces and all of them are jaw dropping experiences. They are subtle immersive spaces that envelop you in something so serine and powerful. The man is a true genius.