For the past 40 years, artist James Turrell has been working on creating his most massive project yet, a largely unseen network of installations built inside a dormant volcano in the Arizona desert. The ambitious land artwork aims to turn the 2.5-mile wide crater into a series of rooms and tunnels designed for contemplation of light, landscape and time.
At 75, Turrell has spent over half his life sculpting the Roden Crater into his magnum opus, which is only about a third of the way done. According to the WSJ. Magazine, a new deal with Arizona State University promises to have the project open to the general public for the first time.
Working with the ASU Foundation and Skystone Foundation—the crater’s nonprofit umbrella—the revised masterplan is expected to complete within the next five years. A long-range strategy for the site, made urgent after Turrell's June health scare, is also being formulated by ASU, who will incorporate the project into its academic programming with five interdisciplinary field labs debuting this spring
“James would be the first to tell you he isn’t immortal,” says ASU president Michael Crow. “We began talking some time ago about how we could become involved intellectually, pedagogically, and then that led to other discussions about how we might be able to then sustain the project for the next hundreds of years.”
Bolstered by a recent $10 million contribution made by Kanye West, the team has begun to raise the $200 million needed to help complete the massive work, which Turrell imagines will include a museum and orientation facility, lodges to rent, and a restaurant. His labyrinth of underground works will involve an enormous domed instrument for tracking celestial bodies; a series of water-filled chambers such as an 8-foot-deep pool that will reflect the sunrise; and a room where visitors will be able to see his or her shadow with the light of Venus.
5 Comments
keep us posted
I must see this, been waiting a long time!
and THANK YOU KANYE! Canye spare another dime?!?
cool cool cool. I’m going
thank you Santa
awesome — would be great to make it solar or wind powered — 100% renewable
Kudos for Kanye!
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.