James Turrell

I want to make something that people direct their attention toward. It’s not that different from when I was a child in the crib, fascinated by the light I saw above me. 

We usually use light to illuminate things. I am interested in the “thingness” of light itself. Light does not so much reveal, as it is the revelation itself.
—James Turrell 

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by James Turrell, opening on October 14 at the Le Bourget gallery. It features two new large installations: a Ganzfeld piece, All Clear, and a Wedgework piece, Either Or (both 2024). Additionally included is an early projection work, Shanta, Red (1968); the newer Corner Projection, Afrum Again (2024); and six new in-wall Glassworks pieces that present every configuration of the series. Also on view are holograms, models, prints, and plans of Roden Crater (1976–), along with survey lap desks used in their production, as well as other photographs, prints, and archival materials.

Since the 1960s, Turrell has worked with perceptual phenomena ranging from sensory deprivation to optical effects. In 1966, he began using planes of light in relation to architectural interiors, launching an ongoing manipulation of built and natural environments. Turrell continues to use light as his primary material to work with the medium of perception, creating formally simple projects that employ new technologies to examine the limits of seeing, sometimes inducing meditative states.

The main space on the Le Bourget gallery’s ground floor houses Ganzfeld, All Clear. Viewers enter a rounded, all-white pavilion within which they are bathed with colored light generated by an LED screen and backlighting. The lack of corners and edges in the space further contributes to a loss of orientation. The series is named for the Ganzfeld Effect, which can occur when an absence of depth, shape, and distance indicators causes the brain to mistake visual noise for tangible information. Turrell’s work evokes the disorienting experiences of skiing in whiteout conditions, ascending into enveloping clouds while flying, or diving into the void of the deep ocean. The landscape alluded to is comparable to outer space, where all horizons are lost, and the abstraction of Boolean algebra. Echoes of such experiences occur when space is dissolved ephemerally in the Ganzfeld piece, All Clear. This occurs at timed intervals to prevent the disorientation from becoming overwhelming.