James Turrell: Straight Up

James Turrell’s Straight Up is his first major structure in Thailand. The first floor is a rare example of one of Turrell’s camera obscura rooms, where a small lens projects the sky onto the floor—similar to how our pupils filter light onto our retinas. The second floor features one of Turrell’s skyspaces—a room with a ceiling aperture to the sky. These apertures act as frames for infinity, making the sky, in the words of the artist, “drop down” to us. Through altering our perception of distance and (outer) space, Turrell turns our attention inward, to the act of looking itself. James Turrell is a foundational figure in the Light and Space movement that emerged in Southern California in the 1960s. By carefully controlling light and architecture, Turrell brings self-consciousness to the invisible act of seeing. His works integrate his experiences with Quaker spirituality, aviation, and optical technologies, including lenses and the camera obscura. His early works, the Projection Pieces (1966-1969), used focused, intense light to project what appear to be solid geometric shapes into dark rooms, turning light into a material presence. Over decades, he has developed precisely crafted, immersive architectures that make the intangible quality of light feel palpable. Turrell’s work takes on new resonance in Thailand, where the heavens hold immense spiritual significance in the dominant Buddhist faith. In Buddhism, the sky represents a transcendence that worldly beings can only achieve through meditation and enlightenment. By disciplining our attention and bringing the sky down to us, the skyscape offers a spatial metaphor for the window through which we humans may access heaven. The upper level of Straight Up is activated by a lighting program every sunrise and sunset.