Description: Standing adjacent to the Shepherd School of Music on the Rice University campus, the James Turrell Skyspace titled Twilight Epiphany is visible from the surrounding Texas Medical Center and many neighboring high-rises. Accommodating 120 people on two levels, the space is acoustically equipped for musical performances as well as a laboratory for music school students. Constructed of grass, concrete, stone and composite steel, the pyramid-like structure is equipped with an LED light performance that projects onto the ceiling and through the 72-foot square knife-edge roof, that is open to the sky. Turrell’s composition of light complements the natural light present at sunrise and sunset, and it transforms the skyspace into a locale for contemplation and reflective interaction with the rest of the campus and the natural world. There will be light shows daily at sunrise and sunset. Tuesdays and Fridays are reserved for private usage and will be closed to the public. Opening to the public June 14; schedule and access will be posted on this website by June 1.
Artist Background: For more than three decades, Turrell has used light and indeterminate space to extend and enhance perception. Turrell is the recipient of the Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships. His work has been the subject of more than 140 solo exhibitions worldwide since 1967. Since 1972 he has been transforming the Roden Crater, a natural cinder volcano situated in Arizona’s Painted Desert, into a large-scale artwork. His permanent installations are on view at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas; the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and the Panza Collection in Varese, Italy, among others. In 2009, the James Turrell Museum officially opened at the Bodega Colomé in Salta, Argentina. Turrell has two other major projects in Houston: the Quaker Meeting House and “The Light Inside,” a site-specific, artificially-lit interior installation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Project Info:
Architect: Thomas Phifer and Partners.
Construction team: Linbeck
Artist: James Turrell
Title: Twilight Epiphany
Media: Skyspace (light and space)
Dimensions: 100’ x 100’
Location: West quadrangle
Completion date: June 2012
