![]() Richard Serra has consistently and rigorously probed issues fundamental to sculpture over a career now spanning almost five decades. The result of this operation is in each case a dynamic volume-an empty chapel, reminiscent of Borromini’s model-that the viewer can traverse, but never entirely grasp. The upper and lower edges of each sheet form perfect ellipses, which never align but angle one to the other. Though the motion of the walls leading into these works is arguably even more difficult to follow visually than are the exterior modulations, only inside the sculpture can one grasp its footprint and upper profile. ![]() Inside the works, the opposite of what is occurring at one’s feet seems to be happening over one’s head: the viewer’s movements and responses are not exclusively governed by sight. This sets up a tension between bodily awareness and vision. In following the exteriors of the sculptures, the viewer is always close to the steel plates, which are snugly situated in a gallery that was a railway depot when Dia:Beacon was a factory. Serra’s presentation at Dia:Beacon includes examples of all the variants within his typology of torqued sculptures: one is gently twisted another is dramatically re-formed so that the overhang extends out some five feet the third, a double ellipse, allows the inner chamber to be separated from the exterior by a disorienting corridor that unpredictably narrows or opens as it weaves its circuitous path but even more labyrinthine and baroque is the latest in the group, 2000 (2000), a torqued spiral. The sculptures were cut and fabricated using a rare steel-bending machine of large proportions, normally intended for the construction of battleships. He gradually assembled some thirty models, and using computer technology, calculated how to bend sheets of steel according to these maquettes. This led to a template that he cut and rolled in lead. He experimented with small twin wooden ellipses rotated in different directions and held together by a dowel. Inspired by the curved shapes of Italian architect Francesco Borromini’s church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1646) in Rome, which he had visited in the early 1990s, Serra decided to take an elliptical volume and torque-or twist-it. I found very important the idea of the body passing through space, and the body’s movement not being predicated totally on image or sight or optical awareness, but on physical awareness in relation to space, place, time, movement.” As a young artist, Serra was strongly affected by contemporary dance, which prompted him, he has said, to consider “ways of relating movement to material and space.” It allowed him “to think about sculpture in an open and extended field. Beguiling and unpredictable, Serra’s sculptures are meant to be examined in motion, forcing the viewer to become a wanderer. ![]() Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses elaborate concerns with orientation and movement, destabilizing our experience of space as we attempt to comprehend each sculptural volume. They are part of Serra’s investigation into the embodied experience of perception. Ranging from Elevation Wedge (2001), a ramp that subtly inclines the floor of the gallery, to his monumental Torqued Ellipses series, these large installations of contorted steel plates elaborate concerns with orientation and movement, destabilizing our experience of space as we attempt to comprehend each sculptural volume. Throughout his career, Serra’s work engaged with “ways of relating movement to material and space.” These concerns remained central to the steel sculptures he made in the 1990s and early 2000s. Serra’s work is on long-term view across five galleries at Dia Beacon. Serra’s Scatter Piece (1968) is an example of this, consisting of rubber strips randomly distributed throughout the gallery. Between 19 Serra penned a list of transitive verbs, which he applied to new and innovative materials to make sculptures. In the late 1960s he introduced “process” into his sculptural practice by making explicit the means of his production. Richard Serra has consistently and rigorously probed issues fundamental to sculpture over a career now spanning nearly six decades.
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