Standing adjacent to the Shepherd School of Music on the Rice University campus, the James Turrell Skyspace titled Twilight Epiphany is visible from the surrounding Texas Medical Center and many neighboring high-rises.
Accommodating 120 people on two levels, the space is acoustically equipped for musical performances as well as a laboratory for music school students.
Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the pyramid-like structure is equipped with an LED light performance that projects onto the ceiling and through the 72-foot square knife-edge roof, that is open to the sky.
Turrell’s composition of light complements the natural light present at sunrise and sunset, and it transforms the skyspace into a locale for contemplation and reflective interaction with the rest of the campus and the natural world.
There will be light shows daily at sunrise and sunset. Tuesdays and Fridays are reserved for private usage and will be closed to the public.
Biography James Turrell, was born in Los Angeles in 1943, his undergraduate studies at Pomona College focused on psychology and mathematics; only later, in graduate school, did he pursue art. He received an MFA in art from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, California.
Turrell's work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind to heighten awareness. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.”
Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell's work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at sunset or transforming the glow of a television set into a fluctuating portal, Turrell's art places viewers in a realm of pure perceptual experience.
His fascination with the phenomena of light is ultimately connected to a very personal, inward search for mankind's place in the universe. Influenced by his Quaker faith, which he characterizes as having a “straightforward, strict presentation of the sublime,” Turrell's art prompts greater self-awareness through a similar discipline of silent contemplation, patience, and meditation.
