James Turrell at PaceWildenstein
Remember holograms? They were big in the 80s. Anyhow, these seemingly 3D depictions of color by James Turrell make awesome backdrops for photographs. Awesome.
I actually saw quite a lot of abstract color when I went to Chelsea on Saturday, and this might be in a sense the purest form of it. Or it might be the transference of abstract Minamalist principles to a new medium (which seems not nearly as high-tech as it did in the 80s).
This jpeg on the left doesn’t really do the work justice either; the shifting work creates a experiential process of looking that is hard to capture. In case you are really into holograms, the show is up at Pace’s 25th St location through October 17th. It could potentially be a soul searching experience in which you touch the miraculous essence of color and exit a changed being, but most likely any reveries you have will be interrupted by inspired photographers like myself whipping out their camera phones. Maybe try to go when the gallery is less busy. : )
ooo. shiny. rainbows. yes please.
I saw Turrell’s show a couple of years ago. Entirely by accident I was there with Doug, Tracy Helgeson‘s husband, whose name is not Helgeson but damn if I remember what it is. Also with Tracy. All three of us. Anyway, the important thing is, Doug used to be in the business of holography, so he could tell me about all the technical facets of Turrell’s work. In fact Doug was pretty sure he knew what machine Turrell used for his exposures, since there are very few capable of that size, and one well-known one was sold by a government lab a few years earlier.
I’d been a bit of a holography geek myself so I could follow Doug. But I’d been away from it for over 20 years at that point. Remember when little hologram pendants were all the rage in the mid-1980s? Fun.
I found Turrell’s show then to be pretty neato. Some of it was sublime. I never wrote it up, though.
John Haber has some intelligent commentary on Turrell’s work today: http://haberarts.com/blog/2009/09/two-perceptual-puzzles/
Me, you lost me at holography : P But you should see the new show and if it strikes you the same way…
Not a huge fan of Holos but your pics make them appealing
Thanks Scott!