Arts
What do you see in the Serra?
A little while ago, I wrote a piece on Richard Serra's "Shift," a sculpture located in a field near King City. At the time, the image of the installation I embedded was a bit desaturated and washed out, all wheatish-yellow.
Being a little vain and compulsive, I tend to re-read my stuff a bit too often. So when I heard the other day that Google had updated its GTA satellite/aerial imagery to something a bit more green and summer-like, I was quick to check if the map in my previous post bore the signs of change.
It did, and much for the better.
Despite a fear of mining the archives a little too quickly -- it is that time of year, isn't it? -- when I saw this, I couldn't resist.
At first anti-climactic, "Shift" actually shows quite the change. In place of a desaturated yellow, the field now appears a rich green. A seemingly minor detail, as a fan, the new capture is a big deal.
With the soy high, the sculpture now floats in a sea of edamame -- bobbing as a sort of oh-so material signifier in search of an oh-so-elusive meaning.
I know it's awfully cliche, but "Shift" looks like it wants to "connect." Those two shapes -- are they family? -- appear to be on the verge of embrace.
On the other hand, the two slabs also look like a little alligator staring down an eel (just below a green waterline). And is that a great white shark to the south?
In a sort of reversal, and in keeping with its title, "Shift" is very much a product of the viewer's imagination -- at once a concrete intrusion and that strange, immaterial thing that is the line drawn between a star and its constellation.
Perhaps two worms, one a tad shorter than the other, in pursuit of a slimy touch?
This must be a message meant for Mars.
A sister to a crop-circle?
Save me from pretension. What do you see in the Serra?
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http://books.google.com/books?id=NVRuHFYzwmoC&;pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22richard+serra%22+shift&source=web&ots=z7y8uvMc8P&sig=L-PFBoR6gZSxG8DKuj9m7qKzpDY
http://www.amazon.ca/Ed-Emberleys-Drawing-Book-Animals/dp/0316789798
You've really intrigued me Derek - I'm anxious to make the trek to see the installation.
And, despite the fact that I've carefully read your comment a few times -- a respect that you clearly failed to pay me -- I can find no trace of the "definitive answer" you promise.
Here's a suggestion: make the trip up to "Shift" and then report back to me. Perhaps then I'll be able to take your opinion seriously. I'd be astounded if at that time you still think Serra erected the sculpture solely for his personal satisfaction.
As for your suggestion, I'll pass. Years ago I had ample opportunity to take my dog for long and wayward walks in King, when I lived in Aurora. There are many artistic delights to be discovered along the roads and trails of King Township, not all of them erected by luminous artists such as Serra. They still speak to the observer in a private and ineffable way.
I'm also at a loss as to why you claim that I didn't use quotations in the article. I did. And the first one is explicitly attributed to Serra in the body of the text.
But, whatever. We disagree about the sculpture. As much as I'm up for defending accusations that I think are false, I can't indulge conversations like this without inevitably looking overly sensitive. At the end of the day, and despite my concerns about your claims, I'm still happy that you're engaged enough to comment in the first place.
Enjoy the holidays...
Merry Christmas, Derek!
Ideally I would say this very loudly and repeatedly within earshot of other people viewing the sculpture but since it isn't nearby, posting a message to this effect here will have to do.
Serra's work addresses the abolition of the plan, and the prerogative of the elevation, which removes the “Gestalt reading”: as per the many critiques of the Spiral Jetty, aerial photography, or consideration of works as a whole rather than as an experience, removes the real content of the work - the multiplicity of views. It is not designed as a piece for viewing through satellite imagery.
When Serra addresses the Spiral Jetty:
“when you actually see the work, it has none of that purely graphic character.... But if you reduce sculpture to the flat plane of the photograph...you’re denying the temporal experience of the work...you’re denying the real content of the work” (from "A Picturesque Stroll around Clara-Clara" by Alan Bois); the real content being the experiential quality. The graphic quality is not a concern; a misunderstanding for online viewers.
Serra's work is not to be viewed in a photograph from the sky and critiqued as to the form of it. I mean, how would you judge any other sculpture aerially?
so if "the shape of the sculpture was determined by two people walking in opposite direction while trying to keep each other in view", i'd be sure it meant from the eye-level perspective of two such walkers.
hope you can visit serra's work and experience it before judging it aerially. even simple works like the one in the Pearson airport is a great auditory experience more than a visual one. Not everything can be judged by photography.
And, on a more serious note, I don't accord the author of any work -- sculpture or otherwise -- the sole ability to legislate its meaning. So while I always like reading Serra's observations (and take them quite seriously), I also believe in interpretive freedom, particularly when it's rigorous (which this isn't...).
Thanks for the thoroughgoing comment.