Newsletter #139 - Seeing the Light
What does it mean?
For the past year or so I have been living with a weird pain, and it has started to affect my ability to do physical things. I finally decided to try and figure out what was wrong with me so I had an ultrasound performed. The room looked like this.
After spending time in rooms that were lit by fluorescent lights, this room made me feel warm and comfortable. I told the technician how great the lighting was (compared to the other rooms) and how it reminded me of being inside a James Turrell installation. The technician said, “Who? Sir, can you please stop talking and hold still?”
If you don’t know, James Turrell is a world-famous artist who is part of what is known as the Light and Space art movement. You’ve probably seen his work at a contemporary art museum, and if not, you’ve probably seen pictures online.
A few years ago, I was asked to make some pictures of the re-opening of the Catskill Art Space (commissioned by CAS in conjunction with the New York Times) which includes a multi-year presentation of James Turrell’s “Avaar” from 1982. I was so excited to be able to make a fully sanctioned and approved photograph of a James Turrell installation.
Speaking of the Catskill Art Space. I have an announcement.
This July, I’ll be hosting a workshop in this room (right next door to James Turrell’s “Avaar”) every Sunday at 10 am. The workshop is called “Why We Photograph,” and we will be talking about why we make pictures and what the point of doing it even is. We’ll dive into different kind of photographic styles, how we make and present our work and how it’s even possible to make money doing it. Is photography even a good art?
It will be somewhat existential, but I think it will be fun and possibly only mildly depressing. This class is open to all people interested in photography, but it’s not a technical class so you will not be learning how to use a camera.
I understand that this might be hard for most readers of this newsletter to attend but maybe you are interested in spending a month this summer in beautiful Sullivan County, New York? You can do so many fun things in the Catskills during the summer.
Here is a short list of things you can do combined with coming to my workshop:
Work on your screenplay
Go swimming in a lake
Kayak down the Delaware River
Go fly-fishing in Roscoe
Become interested in birds
Sit next to a campfire
Get away from your family
Contemplate moving out of the city you live in and ruining your life by buying a house
Fantasize about a career change and become a landscape architect
Dwell on that thing you said to that person five years ago that you’re still not over
I hope to see you there!
While quietly staring at the ceiling in the ultrasound room, I thought about a recent visit to MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. I took this trip specifically to see James Turrell’s “Into the Light” and “C.A.V.U.” I had seen “Into The Light” before, and I believe it is one of the most incredible art experiences you can have, so I wanted to do it again.
You can’t make pictures inside of “Into The Light,” but I did buy a postcard in the gift shop and stapled it to the wall in my basement.
“C.A.V.U.” is relatively new (it opened in 2021), so I was excited to experience it for the first time.
It was cold and raining outside so the oculus wasn’t open for twilight viewings, but you could still sit in the room and look up at the colors projected in the ceiling.
As frustrating as it might seem, it makes sense why you’re not allowed to photograph inside James Turrell’s installations. They are intended to be experienced in real life. The experience is the art. You need to be there, in the space, distraction-free and fully present, to truly appreciate the work. A photograph can’t possibly do it justice so it’s not about trying to make a picture and looking at it later to relive the memory, it’s about what the light and space does to you in that moment in time and how it makes you feel. It’s remarkable what light can do to our emotions and our perceptions.
I probably shouldn’t have taken these pictures. I just can’t help it.
Sally Wright, the director of Catskill Art Space, knew I was going to North Adams and suggested that I visit Thomas Schütte’s ‘Crystal’ since it was just down the road at The Clark.
It had snowed the night before, and the hike up to the structure was amazing.
This is another installation where the experience is the art. You’re supposed to think and contemplate where you are, who you are, what you’ve done, and what it all means.
What was I talking about again?
Oh, right. The pain. I think we figured out what it is, and I might need surgery.
I just hope the operating room looks like this.
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Julia Sforza has too much to say for this small space.
Zach Vitale needs a second opinion.
The most incredible experience I had at a Turrell exhibition was the performance of site specific "sound and light composition" called Trajectory of a Curve performed in the Sky Space on the campus of Rice University in Houston. It was totally weird, beautiful and unexpected. I took lots of pictures. And even a short video. https://moody.rice.edu/events/trajectory-curve-sound-and-light-composition-kurt-stallmann Pain sucks. Surgery is a bummer. Hope it helps.
I didn't think I had heard of James Turrell before, but the photos of his installations looked rather familiar. I figured it out: I have visited his installation here in Bentonville, Arkansas. I just didn't retain his name. I won't forget it now. https://maps.app.goo.gl/owh8GwY9F1S1sUtb9