Yuri Pattison, sun[set] provisioning 2019. Tate. © Yuri Pattison.
9 rooms in JMW Turner
Though made nearly 200 years apart both artists reflect radiant and atmospheric sunsets
Yuri Pattison’s sun[set] provisioning digitally visualises an endlessly morphing ocean sunset, set in a structure made from the industrial steel shelving system Dexion. The images on the screen are generated in real time from data about the atmospheric conditions in this room. A ‘uRadMonitor’ monitoring system collects information about carbon dioxide, pollution particle matter (PM1/PM2.5/PM10), ozone, formaldehyde, temperature and humidity. Software then creates sunsets that allude to the phenomenon of spectacular sunsets caused by high amounts of pollution in the local atmosphere. The sunsets intensify and become more colourful as pollution levels increase. As we observe this digital response to our surroundings, Pattison invites us to question the complex relationship between how our observations and experiences of the natural world are represented.
A group of watercolours by JMW Turner surround Pattison’s installation. Painted over a period of 25 years, they show atmospheric skies. Turner devoted many pages of his sketchbooks to the visual effects of light, air, water and the accompanying natural phenomena of mist, storms and cloud. In some studies, Turner drags watercolour paint across the page as if to blur water and air. In others, the combination of fluid washes of watercolour with energetic brushstrokes creates a sense of perpetual movement and change in atmosphere. The subjects of some of the sketches are veiled in mist or dissolved in the light, giving them an ambiguous, abstract appearance.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, A Wooded River Scene at Sunset c.1820–40
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artworks in Sunset Provision
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Clouds at Sunset c.1823–30
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Sun Rising or Setting over Water c.1825–30
While Constable is well known for his studies of clouds made during the 1820s, many pages in Turner's notebooks record this kind of subject as an ever-present concern of his work. Ruskin wrote that the scientific delineation of 'the aspects of sunset and sunrise, with all their attendant phenomena of cloud and mist' was a central obsession in contemporary art. It is easy to see in these studies how Turner was able to recreate the effects of clouded skies in the finished watercolours for projects such as the 'Rivers of England' and the 'Picturesque Views in England and Wales'.
Gallery label, August 2004
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artworks in Sunset Provision
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Granville, Normandy c.1827–8
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Heavy Clouds over a Landscape c.1820–40
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sea and Sky c.1825–30
Storms often feature as a dramatic and sublime component of Turner’s paintings. In these three watercolours, gathering storm clouds above a menacing sea provide the artist with the opportunity to experiment with contrasting areas of dark and light.
Turner has combined fluid washes with energetic brushstrokes to create a sense of perpetual movement and change in the weather. Each composition preserves a unity between the sky and the water, the energy or stillness of the waves mirroring or balancing the dynamic masses of the clouds.
Gallery label, April 2005
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana at the Entrance to the Grand Canal, Venice, at Sunset 1840
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Sun Reflected on the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Tour de Croy at Wimereuex Sketched from Ambleteuse 1845
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Sun Reflected on the Sea ?near Boulogne 1845
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Joseph Mallord William Turner, Sea and Sky c.1845
This sketch is part of a sequence of at least five watercolours, executed in the same range of leon and orange, which focus on a sunset seen from a beach. A wooden groyne runs down to the sea on the left-hand side in this and another study in te group. These works may have been made on one of Turner's visits to Margate, but it is not clear if they were sketched from the motif, or whether Turner was simply experimenting with his colours, relying on his memory for the glorious sunset.
Gallery label, August 2004
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artworks in Sunset Provision
Yuri Pattison, sun[set] provisioning 2019
sun[set] provisioning 2019 is a free-standing sculptural work, measuring two metres wide by two metres high and just under half a metre in depth. It is a reiteration of the digital renderings of atmospheric conditions familiar from video game designs. In the work, a solar disk hovers at the horizon’s edge, dispersing illumination across a foreground of clouds and sky. As documented in exact detail in Pattison’s medium line, the sculpture consists of the following components: openGL software, modified Dell PowerEdge R620, NVIDIA GTX 1650 GPU, uRad A3 atmospheric monitor, HD monitor, Dexion slotted angle, cables, cutaway padlock, rubidium atomic clock, combination padlock and a steel ruler.
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