James Turrell’s exhibition
Just had a wonderful several days in Canberra. A lovely mix of social and cultural activities and catching up with family. Started off with going out with a large group of friends through the Lithuanian community to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It has become a tradition that we all go out together every year to see the new Chinese New Year in. Great food, good conversation – great evening.
The next day back to Cooma for the morning as I had volunteered as a sitter at the local gallery. Back to Canberra as it was the evening that our quilting friendship group meets. So lots of sh
ow and tell.
Next morning I met with a fellow art quilter from Jindabyne to visit the National Gallery. We had booked to go to James Turrell’s retrospective exhibition. To put myself into the ‘head space’ of the exhibition I decided to visit his installation just outside the gallery before the gallery opened. I have always enjoyed visiting Turrell’s lighting installation ‘Within Without’. The tra
nquility of the scene as you walk towards the installation is broken by the sound of running water.
As you enter you are exposed to the angles and accompanying shadows of the construction and eventually as you ascend up the ramp the water comes into view. As you walk around you reach the open dome and get mesmerised by the light reflections on the wall. Different times of the day provide different experiences as the light plays in response to the the angled walls.
The exhibition was very different from other exhibitions at the gallery. ‘My work is about space and the light that inhabits it”. This statement by the artist greets you as you enter the exhibition space and captures the essence of the exhibition. It was a very sensory and immersing experience as one travelled trough the exhibition. It truly blew me away. Drawings, prints, photographs, video, projections, holograms and a range of light installations took one through such a diversity of lights and perceptions of light. He had such a logical – mathematical basis for the work but it was much more than that. It delved into the sciences and astronomy. Truly hard to describe. We both were enthralled by the so called ‘orange room’. We went back there twice and had a different experience each time. We then relived what we had experienced over lunch at the gallery. After some wonderful family time it was time to go to meet with our Experimentalist group. It’s a small group of textile artist who meet several times a year to share information and challenge ourselves. It was again a very invigorating and informative evening. Many had been to see Turrell’s exhibition. So the challenge for the next few months is ‘light’.
The following day I dropped into Charlie Wells exhibition ‘Forms of Landscape’. An exhibition close to my heart. Eco prints, drawings, collages referencing and using natural pigments together with a range of other mark making tools reveal the artist’s relationship with her environment. Lastly, I went to see Australia Wide 4 exhibition of small 40x40cm quilts. Some really lovely and innovative work was on a display here. I should have taken some notes here but as I was on a tight schedule all I did was look and enjoy. And then in the car to return safely home.