James Turrell at Rice University

Throughout his career, James Turrell has explored light as both a medium and metaphor for personal introspection. His work invites the viewer to greet the light.

Turrell’s artistic explorations have led him to create his signature work: “sky-spaces”. They are intimately scaled enclosures that allow his audience to view the sky through an opening in the roof while programmed lighting subtly washes the interior’s white surfaces with a slowly unfolding cycle of colors. During the periods of dawn and dusk, the celestial dome brightens or darkens. This changing light gradually alters the viewer’s perception of the patch of sky floating above. The sky’s infinite depth appears to flatten in relation to the two-dimensional ceiling plane and its color modulates in complement to the chromatic sequence. Each viewer’s experience is different from the next. In order to fully appreciate the experience of the skyspace, one must take an active role and become fully immersed in the art.

Twilight Epiphany at Rice University is Turrell’s 73rd skyspace. With its design, he introduces elements such as a pyramidal form, multilevel viewing, an open-air configuration, and audio components that heighten the metaphorical thrust of his invitation to greet the light. By working with these new properties, Twilight Epiphany takes on a sense of timelessness: it merges modern architectural characteristics with aspects of that recall the longing among earlier civilizations to understand their place in the vast universe.

At the center of the roof is a 14-square-foot aperture, which is the focal point of the skyspace. From outside, one might mistake the structure as being the principal art object, especially when flashes of brilliant light emanate from the object at dawn and dusk. The computerized displays illuminate the surrounding area and draw onlookers from across campus. In the minutes before sunrise and sunset, 244 synchronized LED fixtures, located in a recessed trough in the parapet handrail wall, throw vivid colors across the white surfaces of the atrium’s walls and ceiling. Occupants are mesmerized by the light show and its effect on their view of the sky above.

 

Source: http://www.archlighting.com/skylights/light-and-lightness_2.aspx