the light fantastic

last night I learned about light art
.
it was absolutely fascinating, and I'd like to share it with you - there's a link at the bottom to the tv show. . .
.
. . .you know I don't really do tv, but this is worth the investment of your time - as it was mine
.
a glimpse:
.

JAMES TURRELL

his Skyspaces were something else -
if they look that good on tv,
they must be mind-blowing in real life;
here's an image:
.

which does nothing convey the wonder of the real thing;
not that I saw the real thing, but imagine it in 3D:
..
a huge room, blank walls and ceiling
lit by ever changing colours of clear light,
from an indefinable source,
with a space in a wall or the ceiling
thru which you view the sky
. ..
this is a series of images of one such Skyspace
altho the room is not lit by coloured light in this instance:
.

in one of the Skyspace installations shown,
the coloured lighting of the room gradually changed
thru the most beautiful hues; and
- the point of the exercise -
the, initially blue, sky seemed to changed colour*
.
it did so according to the "colour" of the room,
as the room, the walls/ceiling, the areas surrounding the spaces
- thru which we watch the sky -
changed

(*or at least that's how your brain interprets the visual image)

DAN FLAVIN

(he works with coloured fluorescent strip bulbs)
.
below, one of my favourite images:
the sun, painting itself on a canvas, as a series of burns
..
(the sun shines thru a huge lens onto a huge canvas,
over a period of hours)
(remember focusing the sun with a magnifying glass
onto pieces of paper [or ants, if you had cruel brothers]
when we were little? just like that - only bigger)
..
the gaps in the curves show you where the clouds came
and the splurgy bits are when conditions were moist. . .
(to be understood, it really needs to be viewed landscape,
I think,
not portrait)

CHARLES ROSS

there is another image I want to show you, by a British artist, one of the sunshine between the equinoxes as viewed from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. . . it wasn't in the show, I read about it in New Scientist the other week, but I can't recall the chap's name. . .

(imagine, on auntie beeb last night, here's the link for anyone with almost an hour to spare in the pursuit of enlightenment - it will be 50 minutes of your time very well spent, IMHO)