Phenomenology and James Turrell

Skyspace, Thremenheere, Cornwall

By phenomenological definition, space is a medium of communication, of mediation and transference of idea and perception.  Heidegger thought that space had a physical presence; it is a material with which we interact and that our physical beings connect or radiate with the universe and thus our physical boundaries do not mark the end of our selves but rather the beginnings of our interaction with the world. In this sense, in Turrell’s work, the boundaries between subject and object, the constructs that scientists and philosophers have created to explain ourselves and our place in the universe become irrelevant as we glimpse the possibility of a different way of seeing, of perceiving beyond these ingrained constructs.