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| Mattress Factory brochure for James Turrell: Into the Light |
In celebration
of several recent of James Turrell exhibitions, the Mattress Factory took you,
dear blog reader, on a trip down memory lane. Along the way, we reminisced about Turrell's first meeting
with Co-Directors Barbara Luderowski and Michael Olijnyk in a New York City cab,
peered through the lens of 1983 video camera to watch Turrell building artworks,
delved deep into the scientific processes that contribute to experience of Pleiaedes,
and rode along as Turrell, Barbara, and Michael rambled across the country in aU-haul with a broken-down Jaguar hitched to the back. We saw how the trio's immediate
chemistry launched a catalytic partnership resulting in new artworks, new
collaborations, and the ultimate validation of the Mattress Factory's primary
mission of supporting artists' creative processes above all else.
In the years
following that fateful cab ride, Turrell accomplished a tremendous amount of
work on Roden Crater and created
artworks for museums and private collections across the world. During those same years, the Mattress
Factory launched numerous successful exhibitions highlighting artworks made by
regional, national, and international artists. As the Mattress Factory's 25th anniversary approached, it
felt natural to reconnect with Turrell, to touch base, and to celebrate the
milestone together. This
celebration took the form of a large-scale, yearlong exhibition of works titled
James Turrell: Into the Light.
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Dinner menu for Dust to Dawn, a 24-hour opening
celebration for James Turrell: Into the Light
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James Turrell: Into the Light, which opened in 2002, was the
largest exhibition of Turrell artworks on the East Coast since the Whitney
Museum show in 1980. Combined with
the three works in the permanent collection, the Mattress Factory presented
twelve installations, models of Roden Crater,
and a series of prints based on the light and space of Roden Crater. Open for
an entire year, the show provided an opportunity to familiarize patrons with
Turrell's work and to build an extended dialogue around pieces then usually
held in private collections or on view for a limited periods of time. The museum opened the exhibit in grand
style, with a 25-hour party.
Barbara and
Michael selected Gasworks, an older
example of Turrell’s Perceptual Cells series, in order to showcase a vast range
of his work with light. It was the
first time the artwork had been exhibited east of the Mississippi. A self-contained sphere into which a
viewer is rolled, Gasworks presents
neon lights timed to flash on the domed interior walls, creating an intense
Ganzfeld, an experience of light as a homogenous visual field.
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| Gasworks as installed at the Mattress Factory. Photo by Florian Holzer. |
Gasworks is one of my personal favorite Turrell works, in part
because we have so many cool tidbits relating to this work in the Mattress
Factory Archives. These materials
speak to the sometimes arduous task of planning and executing projects intended
to expand awareness of and appreciation for works of contemporary art. Here are
a few examples of historical documentation of the James Turrell: Into the Light exhibit housed in the Mattress
Factory Archives.
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| Domes for Gasworks arrived on a wide-load truck from Arizona and required a 10-man crew to carry into the lobby |
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| Operating Instructions for James Turrell's Gasworks at the Mattress Factory |
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| Extra, unused labels for Gasworks at the Mattress Factory |
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| James Turrell with Gasworks on opening night of the exhibition |
During the James Turrell: Into the Light exhibit,
the museum presented numerous public events to facilitate discussion from a
variety of viewpoints. Speakers
from many different backgrounds and with wide-ranging areas of expertise (including scientists, curators, artists, health professionals, Zen reverends,
poets and archeoastonomists) shared their thoughts and engaged with audience
members throughout the year-long exhibit.
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| Public Programs Brochure for James Turrell: Into the Light |
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| Public events surrounding the exhibit brought the attention to the act of seeing |
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| Many James Turrell: Into the Light public programs were free to the public |
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| ARTLab at the Mattress Factory |
The Mattress
Factory continues to engage audiences with the James Turrell works in the
museum's permanent collection. ARTLab occurs every first and third Saturday
and provides hands-on, interactive activities for all ages inspired by the
works in our galleries. Much as our Mattress Factory artists have a chance to
experiment with new materials and ideas in a space, we also want to give ARTLab visitors the experience of playing in a lab and exploring their creativity.
This past June,
ARTLab participants sculpted with light by creating projection slides and
played with the elusive material of light. Participants worked with color and
perception as they created small slides that were projected onto the wall or
into various spaces (much as Catso, Red is also a projection). James Turrell says that his work is "sculpting with
light" and the ARTLab was an opportunity for visitors to play with this
same idea.
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| Kids having fun creating light spaces with black light |
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| An ARTLab artist with her creation |
Another recent
ARTLab inspired students to create collages and objects to be placed in a
black-light booth. Inside the black-light booth, the collages and objects shine
and glow in different, unexpected ways and the students experimented with their
compositions to achieve a desired effect.
Works of art can take on a whole new character once placed in the light
- and this project helped to deepen the students' understanding of the properties
of light and how it can impact an experience with art.
As you can see,
the history of collaboration, support, and inspiration between James Turrell
and the Mattress Factory is carrying on to the artists and entrepreneurs of
tomorrow. Check the MF Website to
see what the Education Department is planning next!
As much fun as
it has been to dig back into the history of the collaborations between James
Turrell and the Mattress Factory, there are so many other treasures and stories
to tell that we'll shift gears in our next post. Let us know if there is any artwork you're curious about and
I'll see what we can dig up from the Archives. Until then...
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