Aftershock, 2021 © James Turrell, Installation view Light & Space at Copenhagen Contemporary, Photo by Florian Holzherr

James Turrell

Aftershock

07.09.22

– 01.04.25

Aftershock is an immersive installation created specifically for CC by the American artist James Turrell. For more than half a century, he has worked with light and space. Influenced by his studies in perceptual psychology and his Quaker background (a pacifist Christian movement, Quakers believe in “inner light”), Turrell started experimenting with light as an art medium in the mid-1960s.

The experience of Aftershock begins outside the work, where you are asked to wait before ascending the temple-like steps and entering the so-called sensory space to witness a cycle of coloured light. Enveloping you in light and colour, the installation induces an experience of spatial boundaries failing away and loss of orientation.

 

James Turell – experiments with light, space and colour

 

Aftershock is one in a line of so called “Ganzfelds” installations, that have become iconic for Turrell’s work with light, space and colour. Ganzfeld is a psychological term coined in the 1930s by the German psychologist Wolfgang Metzger, who was studying the effects of sensory overload. Exposed to an intense torrent of colour, the brain starts hallucinating as it struggles to create meaning in an endless colour field.

At age 16, Turrell obtained his pilot’s license, and he has often discussed how flying has influenced his art. Flying can feel like being in a vector-less space with no definite beginning or end, as when travelling through a cloud or thick fog. Inside Aftershock you can experience a similar sense of disorientation, as you encounter an intense field of coloured light manifesting as a physical presence. The boundaries of the room appear ambiguous – you might even wonder whether your eyes are open or closed.

Turrell’s work is not about light, it is light. He describes his works as containers for light, in which light and colour are experienced as physical matter. More broadly his practice is about light as both a physical and metaphorical presence that determines human perception and, in turn, our experience of the world.

 


Aftershock, 2021 © James Turrell, Installation view Light & Space at Copenhagen Contemporary, Photo by Florian Holzherr

 

First Light

 

CC has the special opportunity to extend the experience of James Turrell’s artistic work with light by presenting the artist’s most important work on paper: First Light. The series consists of twenty graphical prints of geometric, luminous shapes based on the early light installations Turrell made by projecting light onto the walls of his studio. The series of works effectively translates the experience of space and light in the artist’s physical projection pieces to a two-dimensional surface.

First Light will be shown in hall 5 from March 31st.

About James Turrell (b. 1943)

James Turrell is from Los Angeles and in addition to art, he studied perceptual psychology, mathematics, geology and astronomy. Turrell has worked with light as a material since the late 1960s and is preoccupied with the theory of perception – how humans are affected by space, light and colour.

Good to know before your visit

We are currently experiencing a lot of visitors, which creates longer queues and extra waiting time. To avoid the waiting time, we recommend visiting us during the weekdays in the early afternoons or Thursday evenings where we are open until 9 pm. NB: Aftershock closes half an hour before CC’s closing time. Due to many guests, you may experience days when the queue is closed when you arrive. You can always get information about this upon arrival.