Tag Archives: task 12

Task 12 The Matter of Time 1994-2005

Richard Serra’s 8 sculptures that make up The Matter Of Time 1994- 2005 carry so much impact because of their monumental scale. Unlike Rachel Whiteread’s casts, The Matter Of Time are not on a human scale and so to reduce them down to smaller than human height would remove the epic proportions that make the an experience not just a sight. At 2 feet tall they would be a set of sculptures interesting for their material and design like other small pieces, purely aesthetic interest. At a few feet tall or even a single foot tall, I would choose to increase the number of sculptures in the set (possibly by using multiple of each of the 8) so that the pieces covered a large area of floor. The more elaborate miniature landscape like texture this created would be seen from above. This would reinstate more of an experience to the collection as viewers would be in a sea like arrangement of sculptures and could appreciate the collective shapes form above rather than the construction from within.

Photogapher unnamed (date unspecified) Guggenheim. Available from: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/21794 [accessed 6/12/17]