I wanted to deal with light directly rather than with paint.
James TurrellRead
From the very beginning, I was very interested just in light, and art seemed to be a way to work with it.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that light is a fundamental aspect of art for the author, suggesting that art is a medium through which to explore and manipulate light.
James Turrell emphasizes his fascination with light and its integral role in art. For him, art is not just about creating visual representations but is fundamentally tied to the experience and exploration of light, suggesting that the manipulation of light can provide deeper insights and reflections in artistic endeavors.
In practice
In a discussion about contemporary art practices, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of light in installations.
I wanted to deal with light directly rather than with paint.
It is only when light is reduced that the pupil opens and feeling goes out of the eyes like touch.
I feel that I want to use light as this wonderful and magic elixir that we drink as Vitamin D through the skin - and I mean, we are literally light-eaters - to then affect the way that we see.
In many cases, if we knew what it would take, we might have thought twice about it, so it's often wonderful that we don't have hindsight.
There are different stages when you fly. The first stage is the dollhouse effect, seeing everything on Earth like it's a model. Suddenly, all of your concerns seem very small.
Space has a way of looking. It seems like it has a presence of vision. When you come into it, it is there, it’s been waiting for you.
The idea of making audiences feel like they matter, that the theatre matters, and that they're a partner in the event—that's what fuels me as a director . . . I believe it's actually radical to think about the audience.
The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.
To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.
I saw a segment of Douglas Trumbull's special effects for 'Blade Runner' on the KNBC-TV news. I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly.
In no other sport is the connection between performer and observer so intimate, so frequently painful, so unresolved
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.
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