james turrell at Mass MoCA

i know that i told you that back in november barb and i went to see the laurie anderson VR exhibit at MassMoCA. it was amazing, and while we were there we also made reservations for the james turrell exhibit.

i had never heard of james turrell, but yanno. we were there.

amazing, but in a different way.

one is not permitted to photograph his work, because partly it is that he deals in light and form in ways that cannot be translated well into an image, and partly that it is very much experiential.

here's a page from his own website that describes the kinds of pieces he makes. many of these forms are included in the Mass MoCA exhibition and the effect of them on me was to be a little mind-bending. he really toys with you concept of space and surfaces and perception to the point that it's a little trippy.

there weren't lines to get into the dark space even though we'd made reservations. the thing about that is you enter the space through a series of baffles and there are two seats. then you sit there in really, really dark for ten minutes.

and maybe? maybe there's a dim blurry light in the distance? can you make out the shadow of your hand in front of your face? it's a weird feeling, being in that much dark.

then we hung around the gallery and looked at the other light pieces and holograms and models and let them wash over us, which was a pretty good preparation for the light space for which we had reservations in the early afternoon.

we got in line and when it was our turn we were brought into -not the piece itself, but a gallery in front of the piece where we could see the previous group inside the piece.

seriously. because it's one of his ganzfeld works and you pause in that room to put on your shoe covers and receive instructions. the instructions are important because while you're inside it, your perceptions of color and space are being bent pretty severely, and one of the components of the room that creates that disorientation is a rather sudden drop and it would hurt if you fell.

so while they allow you to walk around inside the piece, they want to keep you away from that edge.

it's kind of incredible.

when we got out of there i was feeling kind of punch happy so when we got in the elevator and saw the glowy button i was all like "wow....."

so i took a picture for you.