To take us to the heavens, artist James Turrell went underground

AARHUS, Denmark – Outside, the Danish evening sky was a mottled grey. But to the viewers gazing up through the opening inside the huge dome that is American artist James Turrell’s latest creation, the sky was a flat circle of pure colour that morphed seamlessly from cobalt blue to teal green, to a yolk-like yellow and back to blue.

With each cycle, the colours grew subtly deeper, gradually reaching an intensity that compelled several visitors to lie down directly below the aperture, as if waiting for the mother ship to beam them home.