What fun Asher and so much less stressful than moving Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass.
Not really! He had $10,000,000 for $340 tons of rock with no moving parts and no risk of wind or earthquake damage. Engineering was minimal. Perhaps 6 pages.
My sculpture takes $100,000 to move for about 4 tons after we shed the counterweighted base.
Engineering required extensive modeling and finite element analysis and we ended up with 4 books of calculations and diagrams.
Welding required the most expert craftsmen to assure that they would meet the theoretical values we assumed. We created compound curves in the steel panels which matched within mm.
However the rock turned out in final shape, that happenstance was fine for the artist. It was the effort and gestalt that counted.
Walking underneath it is entirely underwhelming. There is no send of awe, risk or astonishment.
It doesn’t compare, for example with the multi ton curved or flat steel composition by Serra which impose a sense of power on the installed environment!
Most of the tonnage of Serra’s work can be immediately felt and seen as a shape that dominates and invites interaction. By contrast, most of the huge mass of the simple rock at LACMA is invisible, not creating any impact, and has no voice, except as data that we can report, for its historical challenge to roadways to move it from its source to its final resting place.
Otherwise it’s the value to the excited poodle that finally catches the escaping Cadillac stopped at the traffic lights. What does it now do?
Asher
