I swear I’m not making any of this up.
The IMAX film “Jesus Is King” from hip-hop superstar Kanye West, along with the artwork on his gospel album of the same title, was shot at Roden Crater, a volcano northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona, that’s been sculpted into an ambitious art project over the last 40 years and counting.
This two-minute video seems to wrap all those unlikely elements into one:
Let’s tackle these elements one at a time.
First, Roden Crater is the remnants of an extinct volcano. The 5,443-foot-tall cinder cone sits about 22 miles northeast of Route 66, almost due north of Twin Arrows but with the closest access point at Winona — yes, that Winona of the “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” fame. Several other dead volcanos pockmark the region.
In 1979, American artist James Turrell bought the crater. A 2003 article in The Telegraph of London explains why and what he’s doing with it:
It was in the early Seventies, while working on a commission to construct a series of Skyspaces for Count Panza’s 18th-century palazzo in Varese in northern Italy, that Turrell became intrigued with the idea of “celestial vaulting”, an optical phenomenon where space appears to curve at the edges of one’s peripheral vision, creating the impression of the sky as a huge dome enclosing the viewer. Creating an environment where this phenomenon could be experienced to the optimum effect was one of Turrell’s driving motives in finding Roden Crater. […]
A series of tunnels have been driven into the heart of the volcano, leading to chambers where Turrell will, in his phrase, “gather starlight”.
By careful positioning, he says, it is possible to frame certain astronomical configurations, and to isolate the light of particular celestial bodies; in one chamber, for example, it will be possible to bathe in the light from Venus. […]
At the foot of the volcano, Turrell parked and led the way into a large chamber: what he calls the Sun and Moon Space. Here, on the summer solstice, the rising sun will be caught in 10ft diameter on a white alabaster “image stone”. The other side of the stone will capture an image of the moon.
Turrell led the way out of the chamber, along a tunnel running at a gentle incline upwards towards a microscopic point of light some 900ft away. Moving closer, the light became a perfect circle of blue sky, but at length we emerged into another chamber, and it was possible to see that it was not a circle at all, but a large elliptical aperture, its rim so finely bevelled that the sky appeared to be flooding down into the chamber itself. At night, said Turrell, the effect would be of slowly emerging from darkness into a glittering field of stars.
Here’s a relatively recent video from Arizona State University that shows its effects much better than any writer could explain:
Four decades later, the project still isn’t done, and it’s still not open to the public. Curbed reports:
The first phase on construction—shaping the rim of the crater—required removing 1.3 million cubic yards of earth, and the entire site is still years from completion. The Skystone Foundation oversees fundraising for the massive endeavor, and Turrell has recently partnered with Arizona State University to raise $200 million to build a “creative and scientific community around the crater in the process.”
So how did West get involved?
West has been a recent but devoted convert to Turrell’s work. Late last year, he toured Roden Crater multiple times after taking cross-country trips to appreciate Turrell’s art in person. Earlier this year, West donated $10 million to help finish Turrell’s masterpiece, stating that “one day, we’ll all be living in Turrell spaces.” This eventually led to the shooting of the soon-to-be-released film, which was directed by fashion photographer Nick Knight at the Crater last summer.
Yes, the $10 million is not a typo.
One isn’t quite sure what to make of all this. West has been notoriously erratic in recent years; he acknowledges his problems with bipolar disorder in an interview a few months ago with David Letterman on Netflix.
Yet I doubt West is being nonserious or exploitive with his gospel foray. Fifteen years ago, I was one of the many thrilled by “Jesus Walks” from his debut album, so his faith always was there.
“Jesus Is King” is getting mixed reviews, as is the movie. We’ll see whether popular opinion and time raise the worth for both.
As for Roden Crater, I sure hope Terrell’s art project gets completed before his death. In fact, I hope it gets completed at all, so I and other roadies can visit it.
The only art project that comes to mind that’s gone longer in construction is the massive Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, which was started in 1948 and continues to this day.
(Screen-capture image of Roden Crater interior from Arizona State University video; an aerial image of Roden Crater by Arizona’s Earth Science Photo Gallery via Flickr)