James Turrell Deer Shelter. The Art Fund. YSP
'The reason I started the Skyspace series was to get a situation where the sky was actually brought down in close contact - there’s long been an art where light is the subject, I want it also to be the material. How these things are brought close to you so that they become part of your territory is something very important to me.' James Turrell

Roden Crater

James Turrell has been building rooms to which he has given the name 'Skyspace' since 1974.

A chamber of certain dimensions is constructed; containing only seating, lighting and an aperture in the ceiling, in which visitors can sit and gaze at the sky.

The Deer Shelter is one of only a handful of private and public Skyspaces in Britain, including Cat Cairn in Kielder Forest in Northumberland. Across the world Turrell has realised around 40 temporary and permanent Skyspaces, although the Deer Shelter is one of very few that have been formed from an existing historic structure. The Roden Crater is Turrell's largest Skyspace project. The first phase is planned to open in the next five years.

'The Roden Crater. In the crater, I want you to go inside this earth that is above the earth, it is a volcano, an extinct volcanic cinder cone, and then to actually feel that you are going up into the sky: through the earth and into the sky' James Turrell

After seven months of searching by aeroplane, in 1977 James Turrell purchased an extinct volcano and surrounding land in Arizona's Painted Desert. The Roden Crater is Turrell's lifework, absorbing much of his time and energy.

Activated by the movement of the sun, moon and stars, the chambers within the crater are aligned to astronomical events for the next 12,000 years; one chamber enables the viewer to see and feel the rotation of the earth by looking at the night sky. In another, visitors will be able to observe a cycle of the moon called the lower lunar standstill, which takes place in the south-western sky every 18.6 years.

Art Fund Director David Barrie visits the Roden Crater. Read about it here.

Text adapted from Clare Lilley, Curator, YSP James Turrell Deer Shelter: An Art Fund Commission Free Guide ISBN 1 871480 53 1 © Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Deer Shelter by James Turrell.

Photography by Jonty Wilde

The Roden Crater by James Turrell.

Photography by Florian Holzherr

Yorkshire Sculpture Park
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