Samantha Irby Gets High on Light

July 19, 2017·19 min·1 clip

Samantha Irby discovers how James Turrell's light installation makes the sky outside appear to change color in real-time.

This episode features host Abbi Jacobson taking writer Samantha Irby to experience James Turrell's immersive light installation "Meeting" at MoMA PS1 in Queens. They later visit Donald Judd's preserved home at 101 Spring Street to see a Dan Flavin fluorescent light piece installed as functional lighting. Jacobson explores how both artists use light as their primary material to alter perception and environment. James Turrell's "Meeting" is a room with a rectangular opening cut directly into the ceiling, open to the sky. At sunset, programmed LED lights within the room gradually change color, which manipulates how viewers perceive the color of the sky itself. Turrell studied perceptual psychology, and his work functions as an experiment in how the brain processes color and light. The host and Irby describe the sky appearing turquoise or other hues due to the interior lighting, creating a sustained optical illusion. At Judd's home, the Dan Flavin piece consists of red and blue fluorescent tubes arranged in tall squares along the bedroom windows. Flavin Judd, Donald Judd's son, explains that the artwork simply served as the room's functional light source when he grew up there. A surprising insight is that Drake's "Hotline Bling" music video, set in a color-shifting room, was directly influenced by James Turrell's aesthetic. Peter Eleey, a curator at MoMA PS1, describes Turrell's work as a "collaboration" with the natural world, using the existing sky rather than creating a separate object. The experience in Turrell's room becomes more intense over time, with the hosts noting how colors seem to blend and alter each other's appearance. At Judd's home, the practicality of living with major artwork is highlighted, with rules like "don't run through the art" but otherwise normal use. The episode reveals that both Judd and Flavin started as painters before moving to more radical, spatial uses of light and form. The tone is conversational, enthusiastic, and sensory, focusing on the hosts' personal reactions to the art. The style is educational and experiential, guiding the listener through the physical and emotional impact of the installations. Listeners interested in contemporary art, sensory experiences, and the stories behind iconic artworks would love this episode. Those preferring narrative-driven podcasts or highly structured debates might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

Abby Jacobson and Samantha Irby let a room of light turn looking into something funny, strange, and unexpectedly tender.

A room of colored light and a hole cut into the ceiling become the whole encounter here, with Abby Jacobson and Samantha Irby talking through the moment as the room goes egg-yolk yellow and the sky turns turquoise.

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Why you'd press play

You want art talk that starts in a room of colored light and ends with a little existential wobble.

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