‘‘ My My desire desire is is to to set set up up a a situation situation to to which which II take take you you and and let let you you see. see. It It becomes becomes your your experience. experience. ’’ -- James James Turrell Turrell
Roden Crater Visible Observatory Flagstaff, AZ
The Skystone Foundation is a non-profit organization responsible for the fundraising, administration, realization and operation of Roden Crater.
Roden Crater, located in the Painted Desert region of Northern Arizona, is an unprecedented large-scale artwork created within a volcanic cinder cone by light and space artist James Turrell. Representing the culmination of the artist’s lifelong research in the field of human visual and psychological perception, Roden Crater is a controlled environment for the experiencing and contemplation of light. It takes its place within the tradition of American landscape art that began in the 1960s, requiring a journey to visit the work in the remote desert with truly dark night skies. While minimally invasive to the external natural landscape, internally the red and black cinder has been transformed into special engineered spaces where the cycles of geologic and celestial time can be directly experienced. It will constitute a truly culminating phenomenon in world art.
I’ve I’ve always always wanted wanted to to make make a a light light that that looks looks like like the the light light you you see see in in your your dreams. dreams.
Guggenheim
Roden Crater is a natural cinder volcano situated on the southwestern edge of the Painted Desert in Northern Arizona. Since 1972 James Turrell has been transforming the crater into a large-scale artwork that relates, through the medium of light, to the universe of the surrounding sky, land and culture. Organized as a distinct set of changing experiences of light, Turrell’s intervention in the natural form of Roden Crater consists of a series of chambers, pathways, tunnels, and openings onto the sky from within and around the crater's surface.
The artist’s subtle refinement of the natural shape of the crater bowl held 400 feet above the horizon alters the viewer's perception of the sky. Certain chambers within the crater will allow us to see and measure the passage of time through the movement of the stars and planets. Other spaces reveal the more subjective nature of our human relationship to time, light and space — the pyrotechnics of sunrise or sunset or the sensation of light as a material substance. Roden Crater sees (rather than represents) the sky and time, and summons our own vision as strongly as that of the artist.
Monumental in scale and conception, Turrell’s Roden Crater is not a monument in any traditional sense. It does not commemorate historical facts or achievements nor is its exterior form even distinct from its natural surroundings. Rather, harnessing the drama of light, landscape and celestial events, disturbing and awakening our subjective understanding of the universe, Turrell’s crater is a monument to human perception itself — without which cultural history or achievement would not be possible.
1.Amphitheater 1.Amphitheater with with Stage Stage Skyspace Skyspace 2.North 2.North Moon Moon Space Space 3.Crater’s 3.Crater’s Eye Eye 4.Crater Bowl 4.Crater Bowl 5.East 5.East Portal Portal 6.Alpha 6.Alpha (East) (East) Tunnel Tunnel 7.Sun|Moon 7.Sun|Moon Chamber Chamber 8.Fumarole 8.Fumarole Spaces Spaces 9.East Space 9.East Space 10.North 10.North Spaces Spaces 11.South 11.South Spaces Spaces
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1 1 ..
2 2 ..
3 3 ..
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Crater’s Bowl
Crater’s Eye
Oculus Skylight – Plan
Crater Eye – Plaza Level
Oculus Skylight – Section
Crater Eye – Chamber Level
Oculus Skylight – Detail
East Portal
Alpha (East) Tunnel
East Portal Plan
East Portal & Tunnel - Section
East Portal – Enlarged Plan
East Portal – Plan Detail
Alpha Tunnel
Alpha (East) Tunnel
East Portal
Alpha Tunnel
Sun & Moon Chamber
East Portal Alpha Tunnel Sun & Moon Chamber
Alpha Tunnel – Enlarged Section
Alpha Tunnel - Details
Alpha Tunnel – Aperture Door
Alpha Tunnel
Sun | Moon Chamber
Sun & Moon - Plan
Sun & Moon - Section
Sun & Moon – Enlarged Plan Sun & Moon – Entry Elevation