There’s been a whole lot of James Turrell love going on this summer, from The Light Inside at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (which closed on Sunday) to the Guggenheim’s Aten Reign (which closes Wednesday) to the LACMA retrospective (up for almost a full year). Now, Landmarks at the University of Texas at Austin is announcing the October unveiling of James Turrell’s new Skyspace The Color Inside. UT’s official opening will be marked by a free talk with James Turrell and Lynn Herbert, former senior curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Rhodes: As I read his answers the morning after they left, at 4 am, I was brought to tears.
For those that feel they didn’t understand the Turrell experience, those who smugly think they figured it all out, or those who haven’t actually experienced it yet, the young, independent curator Gabriella Flournoy can lend some insight. She recently completed a project called “25 Visits,” in which she visited the MFAH’s Turrell exhibition with a wide variety of “companions”—her younger brother, a museum curator, a coworker—people from “from varied and distinct backgrounds, countries, ages, passions and talents,” to get their honest take on the show.
Joaquin: “I think he is trying to make me feel like God is all around me. In every color.”
Flournoy said that even those she asked that were prepared to not like the exhibition ended up liking the experience, although she divided her companions into the “uneasy” and the “comfortable.” “People are uneasy,” says Flournoy, “when they’re challenged not to think about anything.” Her 25 companions changed her perception as well: “It’s new work every time I see it.”
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12/25 Reflections posted and counting at
http://25visits.tumblr.com/