“Art has played an important role in the life of this house ever since the great collection of Sir Robert Walpole was sold by his grandson to Catherine the Great of Russia in the late-18th century.
A couple of years ago, we were able to borrow back many of those paintings from the State Hermitage Museum and rehang them in their original positions. That project took a great deal of negotiation.
But gaining government indemnity at the time, along with creating proper museum conditions for humidity control, light and so on, means that we can now stage major exhibitions here.
I first became aware of James Turrell when I saw his retrospective at MAK in Vienna. The way he filled the rooms with light seemed to be continuing the tradition of Rothko and I began to wonder what we could do with Turrell’s work at Houghton.
His Skyspaces are iconic pieces and feature an aperture through which one can experience different views of the sky as the light changes. They need a lot of space so we installed one in an old water tower in the park here.
I was keen to build another in a modern folly following the tradition of 18th-century garden buildings. We obtained permission from the relevant authorities as old plans of the house suggested there had been some construction of that sort previously on the site.
It’s a bit like a treehouse on stilts, with a walkway around a square oak chamber built into the canopy of surrounding trees.
In addition to those features, we started discussing this temporary exhibition a couple of years ago and, after planning what could be done in the interior spaces, it became clear to
me that we needed to do something spectacular to draw audiences.
I remembered another of Turrell’s pieces – a wonderful, constantly changing illumination of the Pont du Gard near Avignon – and he was keen on doing something similar with
the facade here.
At Houghton Hall, tiny strips of LED lights have been installed around the steps, colonnades and arcades of the wings. The lights also feature on the cupolas and statues on the roof.
The colours change imperceptibly. I’ve found that even though I’ve watched it many times at dusk, there are still colour combinations that surprise me.
Like many other people, my wife and I visit other great houses at home and abroad all the time. We make mental notes of things we might try at Houghton. We came away with some good ideas, for example, from a recent visit to the royal palaces and gardens in Stockholm.”
Interview by John Holt. LightScape: James Turrell at Houghton runs until 24 October
A couple of years ago, we were able to borrow back many of those paintings from the State Hermitage Museum and rehang them in their original positions. That project took a great deal of negotiation.
But gaining government indemnity at the time, along with creating proper museum conditions for humidity control, light and so on, means that we can now stage major exhibitions here.
I first became aware of James Turrell when I saw his retrospective at MAK in Vienna. The way he filled the rooms with light seemed to be continuing the tradition of Rothko and I began to wonder what we could do with Turrell’s work at Houghton.
His Skyspaces are iconic pieces and feature an aperture through which one can experience different views of the sky as the light changes. They need a lot of space so we installed one in an old water tower in the park here.
I was keen to build another in a modern folly following the tradition of 18th-century garden buildings. We obtained permission from the relevant authorities as old plans of the house suggested there had been some construction of that sort previously on the site.
It’s a bit like a treehouse on stilts, with a walkway around a square oak chamber built into the canopy of surrounding trees.
In addition to those features, we started discussing this temporary exhibition a couple of years ago and, after planning what could be done in the interior spaces, it became clear to
me that we needed to do something spectacular to draw audiences.
I remembered another of Turrell’s pieces – a wonderful, constantly changing illumination of the Pont du Gard near Avignon – and he was keen on doing something similar with
the facade here.
At Houghton Hall, tiny strips of LED lights have been installed around the steps, colonnades and arcades of the wings. The lights also feature on the cupolas and statues on the roof.
The colours change imperceptibly. I’ve found that even though I’ve watched it many times at dusk, there are still colour combinations that surprise me.
Like many other people, my wife and I visit other great houses at home and abroad all the time. We make mental notes of things we might try at Houghton. We came away with some good ideas, for example, from a recent visit to the royal palaces and gardens in Stockholm.”
Interview by John Holt. LightScape: James Turrell at Houghton runs until 24 October
