Ann Hamilton Present-Past, 1984-1997.   Skira Editore S.p.A.  Milano, Italy.  1998.

Hamilton’s work is about the true human condition, and the experiences and sensations that make up our existence.  Her art expresses the ephemeral, yet some lasting, qualities of the memories and experiences, which make up our lives.  She thinks about how memories move from their origins in the present, to the past, and then perpetually move with us into the future, inhabiting new experiences, “disturbing stable orientations of time and place”.  She usually tries to recreate an entire experience for viewers, and uses different mediums to recreate and challenge time and memories.

Goldsworthy, Andy.  Andy Goldsworthya Collaboration with Nature. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers.  New York.  1990.  

Goldsworthy’s work is an ongoing experiment to try and understand the world around him.  Some of his physical works last a fraction of a second, (throwing sand into the air) and some of them will last a lifetime, like his stone walls, but no matter how long a given piece holds together, it never signifies the end of his process.  He documents everything he makes through photographs or, sometimes, video.  His documentation, quite often, stands in as the final product, the actual piece of work.  The photographs are so final, so contradictory to his idea of never-ending process.

Riedelsheimer, Thomas.  Rivers and Tides: Working with Time.  Mediopolis Films, Art and Design.  2004. 

Riedelsheimer offers viewers a look into the world of the artist.  We see more than still photographs of ‘finished pieces’.  We are able to watch as Goldsworthy breaks icicles with his teeth and then holds them in place to freeze back together.  We see him really get to know the place where he is working, the environment that is his medium and subject matter.  We see him be patient and we see him get frustrated.  Because the piece is time-based, we get the chance to see farther into the artist’s world, his process.

Simon, Joan.  Ann Hamilton.  Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers. New York.  2002. 

Hamilton’s installations are perceptual situations that intersect the real and the invented.  They emphasize the process of their own making along with social and historical conditions of their locations/sites.  She was trained in textiles, design, and sculpture, and learned photography and video on her own.  She used a very wide variety of materials to evoke all of the viewer’s senses.

Verlag, Hatje Cantz.  James Turrell the other horizon. MAK Art Society.  Vienna Austria.  2001. 

Turrell was working with ways of giving his light a physical presence, making it seem like a more tangible material than people were generally used to.  His projection pieces lead to the Shallow Space Constructions, which dealt more with the architecture of the spaces occupied by the viewer.  He took his work one step further and incorporated the outside space and light into the inside space occupied by the viewers.  He opened up windows and allowed outside light to enter the space. These experiments lead to the Mendota Stoppages, which was significant because it was the first site-specific sensing space, a space that responds to an outside space. He was working to dissolve the line between the “out there” and “in here”.  He created viewing spaces for people to be able to come in and experience the brilliance of light on their own terms.

Whittaker, Richard.  Greeting the Light I S S U E    #2  an Interview with James Turrell   http://www.conversations.org/99-1-turrell.htm           

James Turrell, who has spent a lifetime trying to get people to question perception.  He is using light to make his audience think about and question ways of seeing and feeling.  His fascination with light stems from childhood experiences.  He grew up in a Quaker household where his grandmother was always telling him that as you sit in Quaker silence “you were to go inside to greet the light.” He grew up trying to figure out what greeting the light meant, and as a child he tried to come to terms with the concept.  When he was sixteen he learned to fly and found a very different perspective on light and space than he had ever witnessed before.  He began experiencing space that is determined not by physical confines, but by atmospheric and light phenomena.