VIEW ALL WALTON'S BLOG ENTRIES
Two superb installations of Walter DeMaria's stainless-steel rods at the Gagosian Chelsea locations remain on display for ten more days. On loan from the Boijmans van Beunigen Museum in Rotterdam and here for first time, A Computer Which Will Solve Every Problem in the World/3-12 Polygon (1984) at the 21st Street gallery features 75 rods placed with the grace and precision that evokes the permanent installation of DeMaria's Broken Kilometer on West Broadway. Yet the two installations could not be more different; the halide lighting and increasing space observed between successive rows of three rods in A Computer... have a profound look and feel that exude a more kinetic energy than the cool exactitude of the five rows of 100 rods of Broken Kilometer. At the 24th Street gallery, 13, 14, 15 Meter Rows (1985) compounds the fascinating effects of A Computer... in that the shapes of the rods and alignment are dramatically different. Moreover, the natural lighting in the 24th Street location allows for a markedly dramatic experience depending on the time of day.
DeMaria spent over a dozen years making enormous sculptures in horizontal format. But the joy of seeing DiMaria's rods outdoors inserted vertically into the earth is rather akin to the joy of seeing Serra sculpture outdoors, rather than in the cold confines of the museum. I've previously written about the excitement of visiting DeMaria's site-specific installation The Lightning Field near Quemado, New Mexico, something everyone with the means to see should do. The season opens again on May 1st, and reservations can be made through Dia's office in Corrales. Fans of DeMaria's work with steel rods will undoubtedly also be fascinated by his Earth Room on Wooster Street.
photo: Visitor at The Lightning Field
Tags:
broken kilometer, dia foundation, earth room, gagosian, lightning field, richard serra, the lightning field, walter demaria
© All rights reserved.
Posted on 4/24/2007
(
Permanent Link
)
Send to Friend