Curated by Guest Curator Michael Govan and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and curator of James Turrell’s major retrospective at LACMA in 2013-14. The exhibition connects Turrell’s legacy with his ambitious Wadi AlFann commission, offering visitors an unparalleled experience of Light and Space. On view are light art installations as well as renders, plans and a constellation map relating to his upcoming commission in AlUla.
Visitors can view plans for Turrell’s upcoming Wadi AlFann commission where he is creating a monumental sequence of chambers within the canyon floor which will generate a sensorial experience of space, colour, and perception. Experiencing the ‘thingness of light’ as well as elements of sky and terrain, the viewer will explore these spaces via a series of tunnels and stairs. The large-scale commission will examine the very nature of seeing and offer a profound opportunity to experience art in dialogue with nature.
The exhibition includes four works from the Royal Commission for AlUla and private collections, which showcase the artist’s mastery of light as a medium. Turrell’s work immerses us in what he describes as ‘the wordless thought that comes from looking at afire’, each work is a meditation on the nature of perception. This exhibition offers the rare opportunity to see one of his very earliest works and one of his most recent pieces.
Highlights from the Royal Commission for AlUla’s contemporary art collection include Cross Corner projection work Alta (1968), which transforms the dim corner of a room into a luminous pyramid, the pink-violet light creates planes that appear to be solid. The exhibition also includes Jubilee, Circular Glass (2021), a circular glass screen where colours mutate hypnotically. However much the viewer stares, it is hard to recognise the colours changing, yet the work takes us imperceptibly from a dazzling crimson to an icy blue. Relating to the oculus Turrell will install in Wadi AlFann, AlUla, the disc of light seems a palpable intervention from another reality.
Lastly, a work from his Magnatron series, evokes the artist’s childhood memories of glimpsing the flickering light of televisions through the windows of neighbouring houses, and Hologram series which reveals a luminous geometric shape floating in space, will also be included.
The exhibition is part of the Wadi AlFann pre-opening programme which provides context and understanding to the commissioned artists’ work and practices, offering a chance to hear from the artists behind Wadi AlFann’s monumental Land Art commissions. Wadi AlFann, meaning ‘Valley of the Arts’, will be a global cultural destination for contemporary art, where era-defining works by artists from around the world will be permanently sited in the monumental landscape of AlUla, the extraordinary desert region of north-west Saudi Arabia. Turrell is one of the first five artists, alongside Manal AlDowayan, Agnes Denes, Michael Heizer, and Ahmed Mater.
This exhibition is located in two spaces in AlJadidah Arts District, the historic old town of AlUla and is part of the AlUla Arts Festival, which runs from 16 January to 22 February 2025. The festival offers visitors an immersive journey through art, design, artist residencies and workshops set against the backdrop of the ancient city.
