Sunday, October 25, 2009

skyspace

Last week Jamie and I were invited to an art event at the new art museum they are building in Bentonville, Crystal Bridges. This exhibit was to premiere a skyspace by artist James Turrell. And it was really cool! The basic idea is that this artist designs these domed art structures to "heightens the viewer's awareness of light, sky and the activity of perception". Here is a photo of the outside of the building just before sunset and the sky was gray.
We walked in the door and there was a heated bench circling the room and a rock wall that we leaned back against to watch the opening in the top of the dome.
There are LED lights in the three tiered dome that enhance the sky viewing experience. When it first started here you can see the sky is gray. There is a thin layer of glass in the top of the sky light but we could see the clouds moving and birds fly over.
Then the lights start to change very slowly as the sun sets and the sky color starts to deepen too.
The whole experience was really fun to watch and also very peaceful.
They said it was ok to take photos but the lighting situation made it pretty difficult.
But here are 16 photos I took a various stages throughout the sunset. You can see the sky starts gray and slowly changes to black. All the LED lights changed so gradual that it was such a play on your eyes to realize the subtle color changes happening.
I kind of liked how this last collage of photos turned out- might have to print it off and hang it in my house. :) Anyways, we were so glad we got to be there for this event especially since the museum isn't opening for a long time. I was wishing some of my architecture/artsy friends could have been there to really explain all the cool aspects- but even as "just a music teacher" I loved it!