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I'd like to give a shout out to my favorite architecture/urban studies/everything blog: BLDGBLOG.

Michael Heizer's boulder

Here is Michael Heizer's giant boulder being transported. Notice the cheering crowds. Pretty sweet!

Stone Field Sculpture, Carl Andre, 1977

Stone Field Sculpture, by Carl Andre, Hartford, CT, 1977.

Stones in Hartford and LA

"Stone Field Sculpture" by Carl Andre, in Hartford, CT, is similar in scale and ambition to Michael Heizer's "Levitated Mass" which is currently being installed at LACMA. Both pieces evoke a contrast between geologic time and human time, and reference the use of stone throughout art history.  One big difference between these two pieces so far seems to be their reception by the public. While the gigantic stone used for "Levitated Mass" was transported on a specially-designed metal truss, accompanied by cheering crowds, police escorts, and cooperative LA Dept of Transportation workers who took down traffic lights on it's triumphant journey from a quarry outside LA to the yard outside LACMA, the Carl Andre piece was despised when it was installed in 1977, has kept a low profile since then, and has even recently endured suggestions that it be "improved" with a water feature. That pretty well sums up the different attitudes about art in Hartford and Los Angeles!

Levitated Mass, by Michael Heizer

I'm eager to see this piece Levitated Mass by Michael Heizer at LACMA. I'm interested in the enormity of the boulder in the piece. It's interesting that this boulder will not move from the site unless some catastrophic natural event dislodges it, or if there is a large human effort equal to the one that put it there in the first place. The geologic permanence of the piece resonates with the natural history of the LaBrea Tar Pits, which are right next door.