Sunday, December 9, 2012

"Levitated mass" by Michael Heizer


Media: Granite
Dimensions: 456 by 15 by 36.5 ft.
Date: June 2012







Michael Heizer was born in Berkely, California, in 1944, and studied at the San Fancisco Art Institute in 1963-64. During the 1960s, Heizer began to experiment with massive land-art projects involving the dying of large sections of desert and "negative sculpture" (digging out of the earth instead of building up). He developed a preference for working with massive rock formations that seem to defy gravity.

His sculpture "Levitated Mass" was opened to the public at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in June 2012. The "mass" consist of a 340-ton boulder which was transported with considerable difficulty and under heavy media coverage from a quarry in Riverside County to Los Angeles. It is suspended above a 456 ft long walkway. Michael Heizer has not commented on the meaning of the artwork. In an interview with the L.A. Times he said: "I think there is a draw from the rock itself, a magnetism we will see when the sculpture is completed, but will the artwork have the same interest value as moving the rock around did?"A documentary about the creation of "Levitated Mass" ("The Boulder") is in progress.

Michael Heizer
http://www.diaart.org/exhibitions/introduction/83

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