James Turrell’s installations that construct and paint with light by drawing on one’s sensorial experience of space, colour and perception to produce optical illusions have long made the Light and Space artistic movement one of my favourite.

The National Gallery of Australia purchased Turrell’s Within Without Skyspace installation in 2010, but the work was closed for maintenance when we planned to visit in 2013. From the NGA’s description of the work:

Within without is a major Skyspace by American artist James Turrell, one of his largest and most complex to date. Light is Turrell’s medium, and his Skyspace is a viewing chamber that affects the way we perceive the sky. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Within without is located in the Gallery’s new Australian Garden on the south side of the building.

We enter the work via a long sloping walkway. Inside is a large square-based pyramid with soft red ochre interior walls. A stupa made of Victorian basalt rises at the centre, highlighted by turquoise water. The stupa contained the viewing chamber—a simple domed space, open to the sky. A moonstone, set into the centre of the floor, echoes the oculus above.

Within the Skyspace, light seems more painterly. Movement and sound are intensified, the sky shimmers and pulsates. Within without is at its most dramatic and complex at dawn and dusk, marking the transition between night and day.

In asking us to take the time to notice these subtleties, Turrell reveals the immensity of the natural world and the beauty of celestial architecture. Within without offers artlessness, simplicity, unhurried perception.

And some blooms outside in the Australian Garden —

James Turrell, Within Without (2010) is located in the Australian Garden on the south side of the National Gallery of Australia at Parkes Pl E, Parkes ACT 2600.