Since mentioning James Turrell a few posts ago i have been trying to find out the latest info on his Magnum opus, The Roden Crater. Turrell is undoubtedly one of the greatest living artists, and over the last three decades he has used light and indeterminate space - not objects or images - to extend and enhance perception. "I am really interested in the qualities of one space sensing another. It is like looking at someone looking. Objectivity is gained by being once removed. As you plumb a space with vision, it is possible to 'see yourself see'. This seeing, this plumbing, imbues space with consciousness."
The Roden Crater is a natural cinder volcano in the Painted Desert, Arizona, and is the site for Turrell's last, epic project. It was purchased in 1972 and Turrell has been carving tunnels, passageways, chambers and windows (or 'skyscapes') into it ever since. I think it was first supposed to open in the late eighties, and then again in the nineties, and then again in 2006 but it has not happened to date and the trail as to when it will be finished is getting thinner.
Only a few people have been allowed to visit the site, mostly major financiers, the art world elite, and a couple of extremely lucky others. By all accounts, (and there aren't many), it is mind blowing, allowing the viewer to see celestial phenomena with the naked eye, and playing with light and colour in the most bewildering way. It has even been mentioned in the same sentence as Machu Picchu and the Pyramids as a true wonder.
What really interests me is that, in working on essentially one piece, on such an enormous scale for nearly forty years - how do you let it go, to be free, to be viewed? Only a few dozen photographs exist, its whereabouts is not common knowledge, and The Skystone Foundation, (who administer the project) have no website, just a phone number, to which they receive countless daily enquiries about visitation - all rebuffed. Its been personal forever, since day one, nobody really knows anything about it, it is for him, it is essentially his tomb. You have to remember this place is in the middle of nowhere, you can't just drive there on a whim, and the concept of coach tours is just too frightening. Turrell talks about flying (the sky) as being his studio, and doing a hell of it enabled him to find Roden Crater - it was the inaccessibility of the location, the peace of the site, which drew him to it. In no way am i suggesting that Turrell is not working his guts out to get this done but I wonder whether the struggle for completion is a struggle with ownership in some way, with whether he can deal with hoards of mortals interfering with the total serenity and beauty of his ultimate creation.
When it finally does open (the latest rumours are 2011), i think it should be one at time, for as long as you need - with me at the very front of the queue.
(There is a good (oldish) radio piece about it here)
There was a BBC Alan Yentob doc about Light Art a couple of years back. And it had a big piece on Turrell and his crater. I can pass it on to you this weekend.
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