Aftershock

Colour does not simply fill the architecture of Aftershock. It changes how that architecture is perceived.

Created specifically for Copenhagen Contemporary by James Turrell, the installation is part of the artist’s celebrated series of Ganzfeld works. Visitors wait outside before ascending the temple-like entrance and entering a sensory chamber animated by a cycle of coloured light.

Inside, familiar visual references become unstable. Surfaces appear to soften, depth is difficult to judge and the boundaries of the room seem to recede. Rather than observing a discrete object, the visitor becomes immersed in the material conditions of seeing.

Turrell’s understanding of perceptual psychology has informed more than half a century of work with light and space. In Aftershock, light is not used to illuminate another material. Light and colour construct the spatial encounter, influencing both the apparent dimensions of the room and the visitor’s awareness of their own body within it.

Acquired in 2024 as Copenhagen Contemporary’s first permanent artwork, Aftershock demonstrates how colour can operate as more than image or surface. It can become an architectural and perceptual event.