Checking Out Turrell

Our team in Sydney recently made the trek down to Canberra for the unveiling of the new installation by James Turrell. Turrell is considered to be one of the greatest living light artists and understandably we were keen to see what he had in store for Australia.  Here’s the diary from our designer Alex Fitzpatrick

Thursday 26th February

An early finish in the studio and we hit the road and head for our nation’s capital. It’s raining. I mean really raining; rivers of water, horizontal and vertical. Canberra welcomes us with sun – here we come. We hope the weather holds for the scheduled early morning viewing of ‘James Turrell: A Retrospective in Canberra’ (which has a distinctly outdoors aspect to it).

Friday 27th February

We wake before dawn. In fact it seems like it’s still the middle of the night. We go to the National Gallery of Australia and jockey for a position to view ‘Within Without’, Skyspace alongside other lighting enthusiasts. The sun rises to reveal an immersive visual experience; the work and the sky in perfect harmony. We were released from the confinements of the architecture and transported into an atmospheric field. The installation was a lesson in patience, appreciation and perfection.

Amazing as this was, this was just a precursor to what was to follow. We entered the gallery and were treated to an individual viewing of ‘Bindu Shards, Perceptual Cell’, another colour-laden immersive experience in a confined space. As lighting people it was considered that we would be able to handle the ‘hard-core’ setting. Some of the team were so affected that they were dreaming vivid turquoise dreams for a week afterwards.

What an experience! Worth the road trip. Worth the early start. Highly recommended.

‘Within Without’ – waiting for dawn

‘Within Without’ – experiencing the light

‘Within Without’ – the approach through two gates of sound