Art 21/ Artist I: James Turrell
About two years ago, I visited a place called Museum San in South Korea. It was located on a huge plain in the middle of a mountain. And in order to reach the museum, I had to walk in side a forest which gave an exotic atmosphere. Some sculpture were placed with trees under a deep blue sky. On the right in front of the museum, there is an installation made by Ando Tadao, a Japanese architect. Like his nickname, an architect of light and water, his work were well merged with the surrounding nature. The museum had lots of visual entertainments; Paper Gallery, Cheong-jo Gallery, Stone Garden, and James Turrell's exhibition. Paper Gallery showed history of the production of paper in Korea. And Cheong-jo Gallery had lots of artworks made by Korean artist including Nam June Paik.
The last gallery about James Turrell was the highlight in this museum. As it was located in 275m height from the sea level, the only thing I could see from this spot was the surrounding mountains, trees and installations. Especially the James Turrell's Gallery was isolated from other galleries. The inside of the gallery was silent and calm. The first artwork was like a grey container box with a rectangular window on one side of its walls. I could only see the nature through a rectangular hole. And other installations placed downstairs were in a dark room. I had nothing but the light from his artworks to rely on. Like from the video Art 21, it created illusions only using a space and light. It made me feel as if I was in a fantasy story.
James Turrell used light as the primary material in his work. And examples showed from Art 21 strongly supports this idea. Normally, when you look outside while airplane goes higher up to the sky, the sky becomes an uniform blue. But when you look at the sky lying down on the "Roden Crater", the sky shows no contrast like standing middle in the universe. I could see how much he sacrificed in order to see this astonishing effect by the nature. His magnificent project will evoke other future artist.
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