Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video has the Internet buzzing. From his quirky diddy bopping reminiscent of your favorite uncle’s two-step at the family BBQ to its plethora of witty memes and gifs, the video treatment for “Hotline Bling” is definitely one to talk about, if anything for its visual display. If the use of light and space looks familiar to you, allow us to reintroduce James Turrell, the 72 year old artist who inspired Drake’s “Hotline Bling” vid.
So who is Turrell? For over 50 years, the American artist has worked directly with lighting and spatial compositions to create his artworks. He explores the intersection of light and space that speaks to viewers without words or sounds, calling the viewer to take into full account of the visual conception. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” Turell says, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.”
Turell is quite accomplished at his gig, too. He is the 1984 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Guggenheim fellowship, where many of his works are currently housed in the museum. In addition to permanent housed collections at other museums like the Tate Modern in London and the Henry Art Gallery among others, his solo exhibitions have been held at the Whitney Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. However, Turell is best known for his land art project, the Roden Crater, a formerly extinct volcanic crater located in the Arizona desert that transforms the inner core of the crater into an observatory of sorts, by coupling light reflected from the sky, solar and celestial phenomena. Turrell has a long history of expanding his art through palatial dimensions, so we can see how Drake – a rapper so enamored by visual aesthetic, can be influenced.
(Seeing the Light by James Turrell via NY Times)
(Seeing the Light by James Turrell via W Mag)
Back in 2014, Drake then visited the Turrell retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, prompting him to take Instagram flicks captioned “Turrell x OVO” by the installations. What seemed like just a random caption then might have actually been the foreshadowing of future projects. Drake even marks Turrell as a “big influence on the visuals” of his tour in a Rolling Stone article that year.
Continuing his inspiration, it’s evident that the Toronto bred rapper is not letting go of Turrell’s signature aesthetic any time soon. As the gifs and memes pour in of Drake two stepping to the tune of the Charlie Brown’s theme or The Cosby Show, it’s bringing an entirely new audience to the innovative works of Turrell. When you think about it, it’s probably music to the ears of the esteemed septuagenarian renowned for his brilliant artwork.
UPDATE: Turrell has issued the following statement, posted by Donn Zaretsky of John Silberman Associates, the firm that represents him:
“While I am truly flattered to learn that Drake f*cks with me, I nevertheless wish to make clear that neither I nor any of my woes was involved in any way in the making of the Hotline Bling video.”
And there you have it folks, per Turell’s statement neither him nor any of his “woes” were involved in the making of the video. Let’s hope a meme manifests of Turell with his “woes”, we’ll love to see them! Peep Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ video below and catch all of the Turrell inspired imagery.
The post A Primer on James Turrell, the Artist Who Inspired Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’ Vid appeared first on lowefactor.