Sitting in James Turrell’s Open Sky 2004 installation at the Chichu Art Museum on Naoshima Island as part of a special sunset viewing in June 2017, I was in awe of the artist’s work. It was only my second time experiencing a Turrell. The first had been earlier that day, again at the Chichu, where I saw Afrum Pale Blue 1968 and Open Field 2000, amongst other iconic works by French impressionist Claude Monet and American sculptor Walter De Maria. Visiting the Chichu gave me insight into Turrell’s unrivalled practice, something I’d gleaned from books, but never seen for myself. On Naoshima Island in a museum designed by esteemed Japanese architect Tadao Ando, Turrell’s command of light, space, time and, of course, pure spectacle, was on display — all the elements that would make the Gallery of Modern Art’s (GOMA) just-announced Turrell a major addition to the artist’s oeuvre. RELATED: James Turrell Fast-forward 12 months to 13 July 2018, and GOMA’s Night Life — the artist’s latest architectural light work and the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere — was launched into the public realm. A work of colour play that entrances and envelops, Night Life has found a place in the hearts and minds of countless Brisbane residents, as well as many visitors from around Australia and the world. Plans for a Night Life monograph began to take shape around the time of the launch, and were driven by QAGOMA Director, Chris Saines, who had been fortunate to meet the artist at the site of his life’s work, Roden Crater in Northern Arizona’s Painted Desert, just a few months earlier. In time, discussions turned to photography. The sentiment was that if this monograph was to take its rightful place amongst the myriad of substantial publications on the artist’s life and work then German photographer and long-time Turrell collaborator Florian Holzherr was always going to be the Gallery’s first choice. Trusted to document Turrell’s work for more than 20 years, Holzherr has photographed his Ganzfelds, Perceptual Cells and Skyspaces all over the world. So the Gallery offered Holzherr the chance to travel to a city that he’d never visited to photograph a Turrell he’d never seen. In a world where flying from one hemisphere to another was still an exciting reality (and not a longed-for fantasy), Holzherr readily accepted the Gallery’s invitation. Once Holzherr’s commission was confirmed, planning for the book, and Florian’s visit, started in earnest. There were flights, accommodation and a contract to organise, writers to commission and winter weather forecasts to consult — there was a very low chance of rain in Brisbane in July, but we crossed our fingers until the shoot was over in any case. The project team met to discuss vantage points and shot lists, and how Night Life could be represented most effectively by different views and colour sequences. Graphic Designer, Sarah Newport started working on design concepts, as well as specifications and finishes for the special editions, while she also grappled with the best way to approach the printing process in order to accurately represent Night Life’s almost fluorescent hues. Philanthropy Manager, Dominique Jones began contacting potential donors to help the Gallery fund the ambitious vision for the book. Head of Facilities, Steve Gibson worked with other Cultural Centre staff to ensure that the grounds around GOMA were presentable for the three-days of Holzherr’s visit — that banners and bollards were removed, ground lighting was turned off, and garden renovations delayed. Design Manager, Michael O’Sullivan enlisted members of the installation team to assist with preparations inside GOMA — turning off lights, lowering window blinds, dimming exhibition signage — anything that might enhance the aesthetics of the building for the night-time shoot. The Events team was consulted to ensure the shoot wouldn’t interfere with any scheduled events for the Gallery’s corporate clients, and vice versa, and Web Designers Clinton Wong and Thomas Renn volunteered as ‘talent’. All these preparations would eventually help Holzherr to make the most of his limited time in Brisbane. Then, in late July 2019, a small number of Gallery staff accompanied Holzherr on his three-night shoot, acting as gofers, ‘talent’, extra sets of hands to carry camera equipment, and interested observers. As you can see in the beautiful hardcover publication, Holzherr’s visit was a wonderful success. The photographs are simply outstanding — and he took so many shots from so many different vantage points that there were probably enough images to fill a dozen books! Holzherr’s approach was professional and good-humoured. He was friendly and genuine, laid back, but committed, and nothing was too much trouble — even when we suggested making our way across to the other side of the river to set up his camera on the bicentennial bikeway (under the M3 motorway) to capture GOMA with Night Life-coloured shimmering water in the foreground. He also generously opened up his archive of Turrell images for the project, which enhanced the publication immeasurably. In July 2020, on the eve of the second anniversary of Night Life’s launch, travelling is difficult, while travelling overseas is nigh on impossible, so Brisbane audiences are very fortunate to have a Turrell in their own backyard. For those audiences not so close, enjoying the pages of James Turrell: Night Life, featuring Florian Holzherr’s stunning photography, is the next best way to be inspired by Turrell’s latest creation. And we can only hope that some of these readers will be inspired enough to plan a visit to GOMA to see the work’s splendour for themselves — at some stage in a freer post-COVID future. Rebecca Mutch is Editor, QAGOMA. The Gallery is extremely grateful to Liz Pidgeon and Graeme Wikman for their generous support of the publication James Turrell: Night Life. Night Life 2018 was realised with the generous support from the Queensland Government; Paul, Sue and Kate Taylor; the Neilson Foundation and the...

James Turrell’s Architectural Light series represents the artist’s smallest works in number, but the largest in terms of sheer physical size, and they adorn public and private buildings and structures around the world, including, of course, the Gallery of Modern Art’s (GOMA) Night Life 2018. In this interview, I spoke with James Turrell from the artist’s home near Flagstaff, Arizona, about the idea of taking light out of a room and into the night. Chris Saines (CS) / James, I wanted to take you back to the concept statement that you provided to me in 2016 — in response to the brief for the work, which, of course, we now know as Night Life. You recalled this formative experience that you’d had as a young boy, about six. You were sitting alongside your father as he piloted his small plane in to land in Los Angeles, just as the sun set over the city. Why has that particular moment remained such a vivid and important one right up to the present day? James Turrell (JT) / Well, the big thing was that the sun had actually gone down before we were landing, and we were just watching the lights of the city come out. It’s always beautiful, and it makes us seem like we’re almost a bioluminescent lichen on the surface of the earth. And, just as we were watching the lights beginning to come out, which was very beautiful, he said: ‘a peasant by day, a princess by night’. I’ll never forget that. We do this ourselves — we dress up, change our clothes from our work clothes, or however we were during the day, and then go out at night. It’s this other time when we have this other raiment that we put on. And buildings do this and structures do this and cities do this. CS / It’s true to say that the public immediately engaged with Night Life, so it prompts me to ask, who is the audience for the works in this series, and who do you have in mind when you conceive of them? JT / Well, this is a strange thing, because I know that Carl Andre said that his art was for everyone, but many people didn’t understand that or see any art in his work whatsoever. And I come from a Quaker family that does not believe in art — they think art is a vanity. The fact is, I like art where you don’t have to read about it to know how to look at it. And so I do want [to make] something that people respond to, you know, and it’s terrible to say, but it’s not that different than when I was a child in a crib, fascinated by the light above me. It’s this quality that you don’t need a program to tell the players [how to play] — you know that it’s you and how you are looking, and that it’s made for you and how you see. This idea of almost a conversation between buildings, this idea of raiment at night and a building taking on a new personality. The fact is, the work is rather astonishingly simple and I don’t want to need it to require an intellectual support system. I guess that would be the best way to say it. On the other hand, I think that if you get into anything intellectually, it can be quite deep and profound, and [my work has] a lot to do with how we think about our built environment, how we think about structures at night and how we think about the use of energy, all these things. So there is a lot to say about all these things. Of course, now that we’re involved with LED light, things are changing. Rather than putting light outside and aiming it up at a building that then spills up into the night sky and decreases our ability to see the stars at night, I do enjoy having the light within a building . . . CS / That leads very well into my next question. When planning a new work in this series, what are the first principles that come into play as you form your initial response to a commission brief? JT / First of all, it’s a look at the building, its location and the age or time of the building, where it sits in the history of the art of architecture, and to have a way of understanding what the building is expressing — its connection with the built environment around it [is very important]. It was very helpful to get images that were taken all around GOMA, looking [at the building] every which way. Some photos seemed like they have little to do with anything I would be doing, but they helped me to know about the area and its history. CS / So it’s about where a building is in the world, how it relates to the city around it and the history of that place. It’s all incredibly important. How precisely have you applied those first principles to developing the work here in Brisbane? JT / Sometimes you know more about how to make up your own history as you see more of it. Some of these things are unintended, but then as this history goes forward, you [end up] not just seeing yourself, but seeing yourself in relationship to all these other factors, not just people. If you’re involved in art, you’re going to be a globalist. You are thinking about people all over the world, and you think about the different places where things go and the different characters of landscape, atmosphere, and people and culture. CS / The architects who were responsible for GOMA had a great vision in that they imagined a light or a projection work contained in a cavity behind the building’s north-east and south-east facades, the two big glass...

Daily from sunset to midnight, as the sky shifts to dusk, Night Life 2018 animates the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) in a play of light from within. James Turrell (United States, b.1943) is one of the globe’s most celebrated artists, renowned for his work with light and space. He invites us into a realm of deep perception, asking us to question how our senses respond to light. Viewing James Turrell’s light installation 'Night Life' Night Life is a destination artwork for Brisbane. For more than half a century, Turrell has created immersive and moving artworks, his large-scale luminous installations — located in or on buildings, or within landscapes — attract visitors from around the world. We have a different life at night. I have always wanted to give this life to buildings. to cloak these structures in a beautiful raiment of light. James Turrell The commissioned permanent installation illuminates GOMA’s eastern and southern glass facades each night through shifts in tempo, hue and intensity of colour. A decade after the opening of GOMA, this dynamic work realises the architects’ vision of animating the building at night. The glass panels lay dormant on GOMA’s exterior for 11 years, the original design concept allowed for a gap of 300mm between the exterior facade and internal gallery walls to carry power and data cabling for a future light installation. This 88 minute light sequence is unique amongst the artists light works, Night Life is a flat canvas of colour, key to the work is 2,500 lights illuminating 200 milky Starphire glass panels 15 metres tall, that wrap around 85 meters of GOMA’s two main facades. James Turrell 'Night Life' Daily from sunset to midnight, the light sequence runs for 88 minutes. Commissioned 2017 to mark the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art. This project has been realised with generous support from the Queensland Government; Paul, Sue and Kate Taylor; the Neilson Foundation and the QAGOMA Foundation Appeal.

For more than half a century, international artist James Turrell (United States, b.1943) has worked with light and space to create immersive and moving artworks that play with viewers’ perceptions. Turrell’s major light installation will illuminate the facade of GOMA in Brisbane from 7.00pm, then from dusk until 12 midnight daily. QAGOMA Director Chris Saines confirmed today the eastern and southern facades of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) would be completely transformed from dusk until 12 midnight daily by the ambitious, much anticipated new light installation. Experience first-hand Turrell’s artwork – an ever-evolving pattern of intensifying and diffusing coloured light. The activation of Turrell’s artwork onsite is a unique milestone in the history of GOMA, the Queensland Cultural Centre and Brisbane. Turrell will be joining us for this momentous occasion, a public celebration on the Maiwar Green lawn outside GOMA. RELATED: James Turrell For more than half a century, international artist James Turrell has worked with light and space to create immersive and moving artworks that play with viewers’ perceptions. STAY CONNECTED: Subscribe to QAGOMA Blog Be the first to go behind-the-scenes at exhibitions and events and hear stories from artists. During the development of GOMA, lead architects Kerry Clare, Lindsay Clare and James Jones envisaged an artist-illuminated ‘white box’ on the Gallery’s main pedestrian approaches. More than a decade on, Turrell’s architectural light installation realises the potential of GOMA’s white box façade, and completes a major aspect of the architects’ original design intention. This work will transform the way local, interstate and international audiences experience the building at night. Turrell’s large-scale luminous installation for GOMA is a first for the artist and unique in terms of the many other light works he has created in and on buildings and within the landscape around the world. The installation is a fantastic addition to GOMA and will further enhance it’s reputation as a world-class cultural tourism destination. Know Brisbane through the Collection / Read about Australian art / Subscribe to QAGOMA YouTube to go behind-the-scenes The Queensland Government has contributed funds towards the development of this ambitious commission and QAGOMA has also received an outstanding lead donation from Paul and Susan Taylor, along with generous contributions from The Neilson Foundation and donors to the 2017 QAGOMA Foundation Appeal to realise this iconic addition to Brisbane’s cityscape. Feature image: Indicative image of James Turrell’s architectural light installation at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) #JamesTurrell #TurrellGOMA #QAGOMA