James Turrell at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park...

At the end of last term during feedback I received a list of artists to look at who could be useful in developing my own work. The work of James Turrell came up, an artist whose work I am in fact already familiar with. During the Christmas holidays when back at home in Sheffield, on a chilly winter afternoon I took a trip to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which as of 2006 is home to a permanent instillation of his within the parks grounds. The work is called ‘Deer Shelter’ and is a ‘calm space for relaxation’ – since 1974 Turrell has been building rooms open to the sky where visitors can sit and gaze. One of the most important aspects to these ‘skyspaces’ as they are known as, is the balance between interior and exterior light, and the effect that they have upon the space that as a viewer you enter and contemplate. The fact that he has coined the word ‘skyspace’ is something that I find very interesting in itself, is he questioning the relationship and reliability of one factor to the other, the sky to the space and vice versa? Or simply referring to the space that is cut out where the sky is visible?

Although I have been to see this work many times before, it was not until this most recent visit that I really considered this relationship between the light and the room – the incredibly stark and simple design of the room is really highlighted by the light coming in. However, after sitting in the room for a period of time I would question how many people entering and spending time in the space really look and consider the actual physicality room; most people appeared to just look up at the sky and take that in, rather than looking around at their surroundings...This relationship between the actuality of a space or room and light is directly linked to my own work, and has given me much to think about – one of the main things being how the changeability of the levels of light affects the space, something I haven’t really looked at up until now, but is something I am intrigued to experiment with. The first 6 photographs are taken when I first arrived at YSP, and the latter ones at the end just before leaving, the differences in colour of the sky, as well as the interior space hopefully visible.