''Dividing the Light'', colloquially the Pomona College skyspace, is a 2007

skyspace A skyspace is an architectural design in which a room, which is painted in a neutral color has a large hole in its ceiling which opens directly to the sky. The room, whose perimeter has benches, allows observers to look at the sky in such a way a ...

art installation by

James Turrell James Turrell (born May 6, 1943) is an American artist known for his work within the Light and Space movement. Much of Turrell's career has been devoted to a still-unfinished work, ''Roden Crater'', a natural cinder cone crater located outsid ...

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

, his alma mater. It consists of a courtyard with a fountain nestled between two academic buildings with an illuminated

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an ...

framing the sky above.

Background

graduated from

in 1965. Starting in the 1970s, he created a series of

s that framed the sky. He was approached by the college when it was designing the Lincoln Hall and Edmunds Hall academic buildings and asked to create an installation for the Draper Courtyard located between them.

Description

Red

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

benches line a partially-enclosed

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

with a shallow black granite

infinity pool An infinity pool, also called an infinity edge pool or a zero edge pool, is a reflecting pool or swimming pool where the water flows over one or more edges, producing a visual effect of water with no boundary. Such pools are often designed so t ...

. A thin brightly-colored

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

covers the installation, with a nearly cutout or aperture, that contains an LED lighting array. At night, the hidden

LED light An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and can be significantly more efficient than mos ...

s illuminate the canopy. Every hour between sunset and sunrise, they "chime", rotating through a series of colors over three minutes, and longer light shows take place daily at sunrise and sunset. The shows slightly vary with each day to match changing conditions over the course of a year. Short trees and other landscaping surround the exterior.

Construction

The work is Turrell's first public installation in Southern California. It cost to complete. It was constructed in consultation with

Marmol Radziner Marmol Radziner is a design-build practice based in Los Angeles that was founded in 1989 by American architects Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner. The firm specializes in residential, commercial, hospitality, cultural, and community projects, and offer ...

, AIA, and Amazing Steel. It underwent maintenance work in 2018.

Reception

The installation received critical praise. A ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' review called it "one of the best works of public art in recent memory", lauding "Turrell's capacity to pull experiences of sensual refinement out of the heavens". Other critics noted its easy accessibility. It is associated with the

Light and Space Light and Space denotes a loosely affiliated art movement related to op art, minimalism and geometric abstraction originating in Southern California in the 1960s and influenced by John McLaughlin. It is characterized by a focus on perceptual ph ...

movement that originated in Southern California in the 1960s, and of which Turrell is a prominent member. The college uses the skyspace courtyard as an event venue. Wading in the pool has been prohibited since .

References

External links