‘Breathing Light': Glow Room's Final Weeks

The mysterious illuminated room by artist James Turrell will shutter on May 29.

In the last day or so, or even in the last hour, we'll wager, you walked into a new room or space. If you did so at night, there was likely a light on, or you flipped a switch as you entered.

The wagering isn't done, however. We'll also wager that the light you turned on didn't change hues, very slowly, nor were you required to remove your shoes and don special booties before entering the room.

There is a changing-color room in Los Angeles that requires booties, and it is like no space you've ever encountered. It's artist James Turrell's "Breathing Light," an enterable work of art that has been on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for just over five years. 

The popular piece is in its final days at the Miracle Mile museum, so get there by Monday, May 29 if you want to see it again or for the first, fabulous time. "There are no immediate plans to show the work in the near future," take note, so best make a date with it ASAP.

"Breathing Light" was tied, in the early part of its run, to a larger James Turrell retrospective, but stayed on, thanks to an extension in 2014. In that time thousands of Southern Californians and visitors from afar has signed up, at the ticket window, for the short but impact-making experience.

An experience that asks you to remove your shoes while goosing your sense of the mysterious, of wonder, and how the softest of shades, from pink to blue, can change one's interior personscape.

The glowful room is just one of Mr. Turrell's studies on the nature of light and color. If you've heard about Roden Crater in Northern Arizona, which is indeed a real crater, and how the 74-year-old artist have been creating a vision of light and sky within it, then you are aware of his dedication to big ideas writ in huge, hue-laden ways. 

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"Breathing Light" is an incandescent example, one that Los Angeles has been lucky enough to enjoy for over a half decade. A dramatic and chromatic art experience you can walk inside doesn't glow along every day.

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