Year: 2002
Medium: mixed media
Dimensions: dimensions variable
Acquired from Pace Gallery, 2025
This work is part of the “Magnatron Series.” Light emanates from an aperture in the wall shaped like the screen of a cathode-ray-tube television. This series is said to have drawn inspiration from Turrell’s own childhood memories of seeing the flickering glow of television light through the window. Each piece in the series is titled after a television program that once aired in the United States. Although the television’s outer case is embedded in the wall, the entirely white room causes one’s sense of depth and spatial perception to be lost, making the illumination appear like a floating body of light. The brightness and color of the glow shift sporadically. The installation invites viewers to sit comfortably in a chair placed in the room, as though leisurely watching television in their own living rooms, and to confront the flickering light, providing them with some period of time akin to meditation. Alternatively, one might find themselves feeling like a child dozing off while gazing at the ambient light spilling through a window at night—an experience reminiscent of the original inspiration Turrell drew upon for this work.
