At the latest exhibition by 'master of light' James Turrell, seeing is believing

At a James Turrell exhibition at the Pace Gallery in Hannam-dong in Yongsan District, central Seoul, light takes center stage — and enlightens its audience.

″After Effect″ (2022) by James Turrell [PACE GALLERY]

The moment the third-floor doors of the Pace Gallery in Hannam-dong of Yongsan District, central Seoul, close behind you, the darkness is near absolute. It takes time for your eyes to adjust.

As you grope your way forward, three large rectangles emerge from the walls, each framed by glowing outlines of yellow, blue and pink. The light shifts — red and blue, green and red, purple and yellow, but it’s not just the lighting that shifts — the viewer’s eyes, reacting to complementary contrasts, complete the work with afterimages formed on the retina.

This is “Wedgework,” an installation by 82-year-old U.S. artist James Turrell.

No paint. No brushstrokes. No focal point. No story. Yet the piece commands quiet attention and invites contemplation.

Turrell, often dubbed the “master of light,” is back in Seoul for the first time in 17 years. His last exhibition in the city was in 2008 at venues including the Total Museum of Contemporary Art.

His new solo show, “The Return,” opens Saturday and takes over the entire Pace Gallery. The show features five installations, including “Wedgework” and the LED-based “Glassworks” that allow viewers to physically experience light. It also includes prints, holograms and photographs related to Roden Crater, the volcanic cone of an extinct volcano in Arizona, where Turrell has been working on a land art project for nearly five decades.

U.S. artist James Turrell speaks to the press at the Pace Gallery in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on June 11. [YONHAP]

“We use light to reveal something about other things,” Turrell said at the gallery on Wednesday. “But I wanted people to treasure light.” As a Quaker, Turrell believes everyone possesses an inner light. His grandmother’s advice — to find the light within yourself — still guides him.

“I started out with projections in 1967 and worked my way up to the technology of LEDs and also the computer control of these diodes,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to have lived long enough to use this technology today.”

Turrell explained that while mixing yellow and blue paints results in green, blending yellow and blue light produces white.

“It’s very different from how you perceive sound,” he said. “You have people who have perfect pitch with singing or as a musician, but color has to do with the context of seeing and that’s where the psychology of perception is important.

“Like a skier that gets a whiteout, when we lose the horizon, we feel like it’s starting to move into the horizonless landscape, and we’re taking ourselves into a new landscape.”

Turrell earned his pilot’s license at 16, following in the footsteps of his father. While flying over the Arizona desert, he discovered the Roden Crater and has since dedicated his life’s work to transforming it. The project involves building 24 viewing spaces and six tunnels within the volcanic cone, designed to let people observe celestial events with the naked eye.

″After Effect″ (2022) by James Turrell [PACE GALLERY]

Though light has been Turrell’s medium and subject for over 60 years, he acknowledges the irony of a world now saturated with it.

“The light of the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, was so much in the sky that the astronomers could no longer do their work,” Turrell said. He would tell collectors who own his works that, “In reality, you own the light that is passing through.”

Turrell’s work imbues the everyday with a cosmic sense of wonder. His early “Skyspace” installations invite viewers to gaze at a personal patch of sky through a ceiling aperture. By isolating a portion of the sky, the surrounding light alters its color — revealing that what we believe we see is, in fact, a construct of the mind.

His first public Skyspace, titled “Meeting” (1980-86/2016), debuted at MoMA PS1 in New York. He has since created nearly 100 such works worldwide, including one at Museum SAN in Wonju, Gangwon. His largest Skyspace to date is set to open this year at the ARoS art museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

Turrell has longstanding ties to Korea. His wife, Lee Kyung-lim, is a Korean painter. In 1961, while serving as a medical volunteer in Laos, Turrell sustained serious injuries and was transferred to a military hospital in Seoul — now the site of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Jongno District, central Seoul.

“I want to pass you a piece of light,” Turrell said. “In the end, I’m an artist. Art is not the biggest thing in the world but this is my job.”

The exhibition runs through Sept. 27. Admission is free but requires a reservation. Weekend bookings are already fully reserved for the next two months.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. BY KWON KEUN-YOUNG [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]