This comment was written by John Wong on 3 Apr 2021.
Marginal and Subterranean Worlds
In 'Encyclopedia of Caves', Hüppop portrays the subterranean worlds exists in ‘continuous darkness … isolation and restriction in space,’ such as in subterranean caves. On the one hand, they offer a high degree of environmental stability and scarcity of predators – a ‘sanctuary’. But on the other, food is scare due to the lack of light and may be even water (unlike David Abrams’ drenched Balinese caves).
In 'The Roden Crater', Turrell posits the notion of vision – a vision that allows his visitors, in a lit-up cave, through a dormant volcanic crater, to look into a clear celestial sky.
In 'Man’s Vision', modern man still exist in a metaphorical darkness, articulated by the thick black paint that encases him; yet through the blue rectangle, the blueness of which is unchecked, a portal is open, to allow him to see with a clear vision, from the marginal world he is in, to the margin of the cosmos, as far as he can see.
Link to 'Man's Vision', acrylic on canvas, 2021 (91 x 61 cm):
https://scalar.usc.edu/works/micro-landscapes-of-the-anthropocene/media/mans-vision?t=1614125450750
