James Turrell Quotes
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I don't know if I believe in art. I certainly believe in light.
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This wonderful elixir of light is the thing that actually connects the immaterial with the material - that connects the cosmic to the plain everyday existence that we try to live in.
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I'm interested in light. It's a very direct, pragmatic, American, rather naive approach.
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The works of previous artists have come from their own experiences or insights but haven't given the experience itself. They had set themselves up as a sort of interpreter to the layman... Our interest is in a form where you realize that the media are just perception.
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The lunar cycle within the solar season: that kind of syncopated rhythm is what life relates to.
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My desire is to bring astronomical events and objects down into your personal, lived-in space.
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You can't stop demographics. And show me a fence that ever worked. It didn't work at Hadrian's Wall. The Great Wall of China didn't work. The Berlin Wall.
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Drake went through my exhibition. I did meet him in Los Angeles, and he was in the spaces that I did do there, and has some images from that.
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I come from L.A. where there's a sense of show. But that's not a bad word in my mind. We say art 'show,' don't we? 'Show' implies entertainment.
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The wonderful thing about being an artist in L.A. is that there is no taste. There's anarchy of taste, which seems good to me.
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Generally, we use light to illuminate other things. I like the thingness, the materiality of light itself. So it feels like it's occupying the space, making a plane, being something that was there, not just passing through. Because light is just passing through. I make these spaces that seem to arrest it for our perception.
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It's really terrific to see Pittsburgh recognize the Mattress Factory.
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When you sit down and see someone play at a piano, you don't think, 'Wow - what a fantastic machine.'
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There was a time when I restored antique planes to support my art habit.
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One of the tenets in Quaker meditation is that you 'go inside to greet the light.' I am interested in this light that's inside greeting the light that's outside.
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Usually we are illuminating things instead of looking at the light itself. But I like this quality of the light being the revelation.
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Light itself is a revelation.
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I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions.
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It's possible to gather light that's older than our solar system.
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In a way, light unites the spiritual world and the ephemeral, physical world. People frequently talk about spiritual experiences using the vocabulary of light: Saul on the road to Damascus, near-death experiences, samadhi or the light-filled void of Buddhist enlightenment.
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There's traditionally been a large disconnection in contemporary art between the audience and the artist. Generally, audiences are looking towards what they like, and I can tell you, that's the last thing on an artist's mind.
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I started out with projected-light works and working indoors, but I'd prepare the walls - by sanding, etcetera - the way you'd prepare a canvas for painting.
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I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing... like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.
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Art does, to some extent, follow economics.