I was maybe 5 or 6, and my grandmother would begin sitting me in the Quaker meeting house. I asked my grandmother, 'What am I supposed to do?' and she said, 'Just wait, we're going inside to greet the light.' I liked thatโthis idea to go inside to find that light within, literally as well as figuratively.
James TurrellI'm known as a light artist. But rather than be someone who depicted light, or painted light in some way, I wanted to have the work be light.
James TurrellMy works are about light in the sense that light is present and there; the work is made of light. It's not about light or a record of it, but it is light. Light is not so much something that reveals, as it is itself revelation.
James TurrellI want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing, like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.
James TurrellIn thinking of light, if we can think about what it can do, and what it is, by thinking about itself, not about what we wanted it to do for other things, because again we've used light as people might be used, in the sense that we use it to light paintings. We use it to light so that we can read. We don't really pay much attention to the light itself. And so turning that and letting light and sound speak for itself is that you figure out these different relationships and rules.
James Turrell