Michael Heizer. Levitated Mass.

by florence cheval

Michael Heizer, preliminary sketch for Levitated Mass, 2011.

Now that the famous 340-ton rock specified for Michael Heizer’s piece, “Levitated Mass,” has been safely transported from a Riverside quarry to LACMA, critics and viewers can shift their attention to the many art events happening this week.

On Tuesday, February 28th, a 340-ton granite megalith left Riverside County, California, to its final destination, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where it arrived on Saturday, March 10th.

Levitated Mass by artist Michael Heizer was conceived in 1968. But the appropriate megalith was found only decades later.
It will be installed on a 456-foot-long slot, so that the visitors can walk underneath it. The excavation is also an important part of the work. One should think of Michael Heizer’s Double Negative (1969-70), which consists of two trenches cut into the Mormon Mesa, Nevada – over 300 miles from Los Angeles.
The boulder will be kind of suspended over the floor.

At 340 tons, the boulder is one of the largest megaliths moved since ancient times. Taken whole, Levitated Mass speaks to the expanse of art history, from ancient traditions of creating artworks from megalithic stone, to modern forms of abstract geometries and cutting-edge feats of engineering.

Levitated Mass is expected to open to the public in early summer, 2012.

More information on Observatoire du Land Art: http://obsart.blogspot.com/