JAMES IS OUR LEADER

On James Turrell and Celebrity

On March 15th, 2022, Kanye West posted an image to his Instagram. The photo was a scanned pencil sketch on white ruled paper, showing three circular disks. Above it, in crudely crossed out dark pencil, the words “SONESTA HOTEL / HILTON DOUBLETREE.” Below were the words “3 O’Clock” blocked off in a square, 267,244 likes, and the caption: “James is our leader.”

The invoked “James” is LA-based light sculptor, James Turrell. Turrell, the most successful protege of Southern California’s 1960’s light-and-space movement, is an installation artist specializing in immersive light pieces that are both visually and spatially disorienting. At the age of 75, Turrell’s “prolific body of work,” as described by his website, spans six decades of experience. His work is displayed internationally around the world and solo exhibits installed in global metropolitan centers including BadenBaden, Germany, Mexico City, Mexico, and North Adams, Massachusetts.

March’s Instagram post was not the first time that West has publicly talked about James Turrell. The two artists’ relationship has been four years in the making, with other highlights including West’s frequent Turrell-praising in interviews, publicized museum visits, and numerous Turrell-Tweets, the earliest of which was from December of 2018, with West tweeting the word “Turrell” followed by a goat emoji.

But West is not the only celebrity with an affinity for light-and-space art, with stars including Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner, and Devin Booker all lining up for some time with Turrell. Famous Canadian rapper, Drake, even used Turrell as the inspiration for his infamous 2015 music video, Hotline Bling. The set of this video, which consisted of colorful fluorescent boxes for Drake to dance inside of, led many to draw comparisons to the light artist’s work. Despite serving as the main creative inspiration for the project, Turrell had no involvement with the production or design of the video. Turrell’s first reaction to Hotline Bling was quite negative, with the LA native considering taking legal action against the former Degrassi star. Turrell eventually cooled his Southern-California temper, later releasing a statement saying that he is glad Drake “fucks with me.” But the Turrell adoration spills out even more locally into West’s life, specifically to his ex-wife’s younger half-sister.

Kendall Jenner’s Architectural Digest Youtube video begins in her living room. After panning over her carefully curated selection of pillows and impressive lack of a television, the camera zooms back out to reveal Kendall in her foyer. She is wearing an all black matching Gucci set. Placed ten feet away from her couch is her James Turrell, casting a pink glow over her and her Spanish-style archways. Installed into the foundation of Jenner’s house, the piece is a part of Turrell’s Elliptical Glass series. Named ‘Scorpius’ (just like her zodiac sign), Jenner’s piece retails for $750,000. Owning one of these pieces is no small feat, with Jenner being one of the few individuals to privately own a Turrell, providing her with the perfect glowing ovoid wall-display next to which she can hang up her driver’s keys and kick off her Zumi Leather Slide Sandals.

“I have always wanted a James Turrell… he actually makes these pieces to meditate in front of,” says Jenner.

While we can certainly revel in the humorous visual of Jenner sitting down by her front door to meditate by the soft glow of her pink cosmic light orb, maybe letting the warm colors of hundreds of thousands of dollars wash over her as she centers her breath, the use of Turrell as a meditative tool brings into question the piece’s intended purpose. Turrell maybe wouldn’t use the verbiage “meditate” to describe the process of consuming his work, as he views the purpose of his art less as the creation of the physical objects and spaces he is making, but rather the practice of its consumption. To quote the artist: “My work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing.”

The term ‘slow art’ was first coined in relation to Turrell’s work by the Pomona College literature professor, Arden Reed. In his book, Slow Art: The Experience of Looking, Sacred Images to James Turrell, Reed describes slow art as “what transpires between the beholder and whatever she is looking at… it’s a collection of encounters.” Much like Turrell, Reed thinks of slow art not as the artistic objects at hand, whether they be a glowing pink orbs or an oil painting, but instead “the meeting of object and observer.” Slow art, as a concept, could be applied to any art medium you have the patience to spend time with, but the concept lends itself uniquely well to Turrell’s work, as the immersion of his spaces requires time and patience.

Reed claims that slow art is a recent phenomenon, that despite many pieces of art existing for millenium that we may contemporarily consider to be slow art, art only becomes slow art due to the relative speed of the culture in which it was created. In short, slow art didn’t exist in the past because everything was slow. Reed claims that we now live in “speed culture,” where slow art can exist as a reaction to our rapid consumption of media.

While celebrities like Kanye and Kendall likely enjoy Turrell similarly to your run-ofthe-mill MASS MoCA frequenter, the material deprivation of Turrell’s installations—often empty rooms only filled with light—provide celebrities with a new way to engage with his art compared to other pieces in their collections, disengaging them from the material excess they are so used to, and instead indulging in them in a new abundance, one of color, light, and smoothness.

The Kardashians are no strangers to the world of high art. Each member of the family has their own extensive art collections, including Kylie’s Basquiat print, Kim’s Condo Birkin, and Kris’ Yoshitomo Nara canvas, displayed tastefully above her fireplace. Turrell’s art lends itself especially well to a Kardashian collection, and all celebrity collections alike; through their use of a less common medium in light, Turrell’s installations allow celebrities to indulge their collections in art that visually feels shiny and new, despite light art being an established craft.

Turrell’s art provides a unique immersive experience, devoid of the physical, but rich in the sensory. For celebrities, like the Kardashians, Turrell’s artwork is both personally fulfilling and socially beneficial. What is more Kardashian than a tranquil meditation space that can double as an Instagram background! A pink orb to ponder your relationship to space, before standing up and posing for your Architectural Digest cover. Turrell’s work presents celebrities with a way to engage with “high art” spaces, without “burdening” them with more physical luxury, allowing them to momentarily escape from their bohemian-style Beverly Hills hideaway, and enter a world of sensory saturation.

Through Turrell’s work, the Kardashians are able to flex a new kind of sensory abundance,

one that signifies financial, artistic, and spiritual wellness. Gone are the days where Kim must Twitter-post about her surprising her closest circle with a mid-pandemic private island 40th birthday party to show her exclusive lifestyle; now, she can simply snap a pic in her little sister’s living room. While getaway islands and private jets are easy to critique, Turrell’s pieces, due to their status as art, provide armor from criticism through their association with good aesthetic taste. The Kardashians, by owning Turrell’s work, can continue to flex their exclusive sensibilities, only now through light and space.

Springing from Jenner’s Architectural Digest video are a slew of Turrell imitations: bite-sized tutorials on how to create your own floating, pink, living-room orb —maybe you could even name it after your own zodiac! Titles include “HOW TO MAKE KENDALL JENNER’S AMAZING SCULPTURE FOR UNDER $100” and “thrifting + diy-ing for kendall jenner.” The videos follow a similar, self-explanatory vein: how can we make James Turrell sculptures in our bedrooms? The answer seems to lie in LED light strips, Home Depot light fixtures, and extension cords. These online, DIY spaces take Turrell’s visions out of Beverly Hills estates and extinct volcanic craters, instead bringing them into the homes of anyone curious about light and space.

Connecting to the concept of slow art, these DIY videos bring into question the state of James Turrell in the age of social media replicability. Turrell is against the photography of his installations, with video/photo documentation explicitly banned at all of his solo exhibitions. Despite his aversion to the photography of his work, it is undeniable how well Turrell’s work lends itself to platforms like Instagram: perfect spheres, glossed over in impossibly vibrant colors, practically begging to have a selfie taken in front of.

Turrell relies on an incredible amount of precision to create his work, specifying the dimensions of his installations to 1/64th of an inch to guarantee his signature sublime smoothness. But the end result of Turrell’s process is almost a digitization: a flattening of the 3D into soft, smooth, replicable shapes, a glossy glow mirroring the soft hum of a screen. The same replicability that comes with Turrell’s precision is instantly captured by a camera, a snap into the 2D with a customizable filter or sheen. Through platforms like Instagram, Turrell’s work is both exaggerated visually and diminished spatially. The colors become brighter, the shapes smoother, the ‘how?’ even more mystifying. But without space, how do we get lost in the scale of a Turrell; how do I experience spacial slow art when I’m half-an-inch away from my phone?

This raises the question, how do we, as the non-Kardashian/Jenner/West/Drakes of the world, engage with Turrell, and with slow art generally? Most people do not live in BadenBaden or Mexico City or Western Massachusetts, and can only dream of one day having a million dollar light fixture installed into their walls. While it may not be realistic to have a Turrell in any of our beach-side foyers any time soon, in our attempt at DIY replication, we may unlock a form of artistic consumption even slower than slow art: perhaps super slow art. Through the process of craft, we are able to engage with art slowly and methodically, taking more time than any amount a museum would ever allot us. Maybe those most engaged with slow art are the DIY Youtubers who have labored over these videos for hours, providing me with helpful hacks on how to save $749,900 on my ongoing journey towards the Turrellification of my home. To quote Youtuber ‘wearlucinda’ in her video, steal Kendall’s decor: DIY neon light sculpture (James Turrell inspired), “Beautiful objects are not just for the rich and famous. We can make them ourselves too.”

CHARLIE MEDEIROS B’24 thinks YouTube is the answer.