THESIS

“Still, that landscape is the place my mind summons when I’m asked (usually in some yogic or meditative context, now that I live in Los Angeles) to close my eyes and “imagine a scene of total peace and serenity.” In those moments, I picture the Rothko-like blocks of earth and sky, the psychedelic sunsets, the sublime loneliness of a single cottonwood punctuating acres of flat prairie. I remember the sound of golf ball-size hail hitting the roof and denting the car. I remember sitting on the front porch and watching a lightning storm that was miles away but cracked the whole night open nonetheless. It was there, under that sky and at the mercy of all that weather, that I began to understand the concept of a wrathful God. In Nebraska, storms are a violence from which no amount of caution or privilege can protect you. Their warnings crawl across television screens in every season. They’ll blow you or freeze you or blind you into submission. They’ll force you into some kind of faith.”

—http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Lincoln-Nebraska-Home-on-the-Prairie.html

long collection of notes

james turrell

- formlessness, limitlessness, no idea of depth

- lighting, glow of the night sky

blue

- color of night sky, edge of day and night

- blue is a special color in buddhism

light 

- way that you can look/feel connected to environment, you’re all affected by being washed by the same light

- amitabha buddha, buddha of immeasurable light, salvation?

landscape

- translated into bare planes and light

video

- trance- like, but more literal in its trance-style and its use of actual footage

- moves between literal and more abstract

- meant to demonstrate on possible scene/experience that inspires the meditative feel in me (and hopefully others)

- you have to pass through it, go beyond it, to get to the “true essence”

i had to let go of a lot of the literalness to find the true meaning

transcendental

mandala

- meditation, used to aid in trance

- focus on central point, like central point in the road or where the road meets the horizon

- reduced to bare geometric form

driving/countryside

- almost like being nowhere

- people around pass by in cars, their presence is temporary

- being in between two places

- straight lines, straight road, straight path

- clear horizon, no obstacles

moksha - sanskrit, in Indian religions it means literally “release”, from a root meaning “to let go”. applied it means liberation from samsara and the suffering involved with the cycle of death and rebirth. used in buddhism and jainism

similar to nirvana

some views on it: attainment of liberation coincides with unreality of personal self in psyche/egp, and the simultaneous relevation of the impersonal self, seeing all spiritual and phenomenal existence within ourselves, seeing ourselves as buddha

between sentient Awareness and insentient matter is an illusion formed in the mind (I’m trying to create the illusion of the sky, of vast space, of lack of depth or formlessness. 

horizon - kind of like reaching the end of a rainbow, you can actually reach the horizon, because it always remains distance relative to you. however, you are moving towards it, it is you goal. kind of like the idea of nirvana in buddhism, it is your goal, but you can’t be attached to the idea or desire it too much otherwise it will evade you. it is something “pursued but never definitely attained”. the line joining earth and sky, kind of like the line joining this land from the “pure land”, or nirvana. “dualistic nature of the horizon by walking every step into the distance in a rhythm of contraction and expansion, concealing and revealing.”

“the horizon is most present in the landscapes of areas, which are minimal in content, open spaces traditionally frequented by phenomena. these areas are notes as offering moments of pure presense where one is both transfized by wonder and transported by sense. 

This experience of pure presence is both a temporary suspension of chronological time and bodily activity. 

Also included in the exhibition will be Yukaloo, a new Wide Glass work. In these works, Turrell adds a temporal element to his perception-altering oeuvre. Each piece consists of a grid of LEDs behind a pane of etched glass. The LEDs are individually programmed to carry out a subtle shift in color over time, similar to the deliberate but beautiful fashion in which the sky changes from late afternoon to night.