Turrell @ Roden crater, photo Florian Holzherr

Tomorrow (Feb 16th), James Turrell will speak at PNCA's huge Swigert Commons space to kick off their Idea Studio talks. Reservations are sold out but a limited # of standing room only slots will be available, doors open at 3:00 first come first served. Talk is at 4:00 (reservation holders need to be seated by 3:50 to retain their seats). While you are at it read PORT's in-depth review of James Turrell's Pomona College show to prepare.

Also, it's the general opening of the BCAM at LACMA and the New York Times smells blood. Neither Ouroussoff nor Roberta Smith were that impressed and one senses that an unmitigated triumph at LACMA would have forced New York Museums to step up... needless to say this didn't happen and I wonder if Broad isn't dodging a bullet by not giving his collection to the new BCAM building he just put up? Can our biggest museums like LACMA, MoMA and The Met realistically be expected to recapture some sort of edge? Oh and one more thing Ourousoff though rarely wrong is so on one point... Projects like Thom Mayne's Caltrans Building and Moneo's church in addition to Gehry's Disney Concert hall have not only lived up to LA's great tradition of architectural experimentation, they have left New York so far in the dust its no wonder the Times is playing defense. Broad's name as a lead patron appears on a lot of those buildings btw. Yes, not going with Koolhaas's design was probably a mistake, but would LA have paid for such a ambitious overhaul for something not related to the movie industry? As Tyler Green mentioned yesterday, this seems like a very strange conversation in the LA Times with Broad and Govan.

Also, a portion of the plot of the new Jack Black movie Be Kind Rewind reminds me a lot of Joe Sola's series where he would record new and lower budget climactic moments of classic movies like Return of the Jedi on rental video tapes then return them to circulation. Obviously they are different but its interesting to see how a viral art project and a screenplay can share similarities. It is a funny idea probably done a million times since video tape recording first became widely available.

This should of been moved, so everyone who wanted to attend could of.

Turrell can pack any reasonably large sized venue... if this were at the museum it would have been sold out too (it happens whenver you have someone big like Schjeldahl or Dave Hickey. Besides its PNCA's baby and in their interest to bring a lot of people to their very very large space. Doing this at the Rose Garden Arena might have let more people come but it would have been a terrible experience for everyone. Portland loves lectures by visiting luminaries.

Maybe the pearl district should have a civic center....with a large hall that is convertable to exhibition space for MFA thesis show and to to handle major events like this and TBA etc. Still there is real worth in having a major artist speaking on the grounds of an art school.

Bryan, check your email. Then call me because I have an extra ticket for the lecture, for you or for whoever wants it.

Thanks Calvin will do. Hey total support here. He is the biggest name to hit Portland since I've been here.-- Yes Portland does have that great ability to get the 'names' here, to talk.

hmmm they might do more than talk....

we shall see!

Turell's talk was good and it was nice that everyone was exposed to a first rate artist. My biggest problem is how the later work seems so mildly new age. Something about his most recent forrays into architechture are unconvincing... it isnt his strength. I think Tadao Ando or Brad Cloepfil could help the detailing of the spaces be less spa-like. Brad was in the audience and I think a tag team of Cloepfil/Turrell in Portland would be ideal. Cloepfil has a wayof dissolving walls with light, they are kindred aesthetes.

I loved seeing the extensive Roden Crater images but there is a cheese factor at work here that I didnt experence at all with Turrell's earlier light pieces... or even the corridor pieces we saw a few years ago at the Henry (the kind that got him sued).

Which is all to say I think Turrell's work is increasingly moving into the territory of the great pyramids and thus being just as concerned with earth as it is sky. Let's just say that whoever is designing these spaces is no Imhotep.

I dont think many of his designs are ascetic enough anymore... they have a pius-yuppie look with very precious looking ovals trimmed with very precious looking materials. My impression, Turrell's first skyspace in LA was a lot better than the one at the De Young. Though I do like the look of his new one at Pomona College. Overall, after seeing it in the slideshow I'm not a fan of the Roden Crater's architecture.

I do LOVE the architecture of the Johnson Ridge Observatory at Mt. St. Helens though... sure it isnt anywhere as optically nuanced as Turrell's Roden Crater stuctures but it's functionionality didnt lead to the fussyness I see in the crater's designs.