''The Matter of Time'' (in Spanish: ''La materia del tiempo'') is an
installation
Installation may refer to:
* Installation (computer programs)
* Installation, work of installation art
* Installation, military base
* Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
comprising eight pieces of torqued ellipses made of
weathering steel
Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...
(COR-TEN steel), by the US sculptor
Richard Serra
Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...
. It incorporates a series of seven sculptures
[«El espacio como materialización del tiempo»]
''El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
''. Retrieved 23 April 2013. made of
spot-welded sheets of steel that form -high curling walls
[ Hughes, Robert]
"Man of steel"
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. Retrieved 23 April 2013. positioned around the existing sculpture, ''Snake'' (''Serpiente''), that had been commissioned for the museum's opening in 1997.
Commissioned by the
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, it forms part of the permanent exhibition since 2005. Reviewing the work for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', art critic
Robert Hughes, considered the work to be that of "the best sculptor alive..." going on to add that Serra was also "the only great one at work anywhere in the early 21st century.".
[
Made at the ]rolling mill
In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...
at Siegen, Germany
Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.
It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region. The university town (nearly 20,000 students in the 2018–2019 winter semeste ...
,[ and weighing in total 1034 tonnes,][ it is installed in the museum's main gallery, the ][Harrison, Charles, ''An introduction to art'', p. 291. Yale University Press, 2009]
At Google Books. Retrieved 23 April 2013. Arcelor
Arcelor S.A. was the world's largest steel producer in terms of turnover and the second largest in terms of steel output, with a turnover of €30.2 billion and shipments of 45 million metric tons of steel in 2004. The company was created in 2002 ...
Gallery, named after its sponsor,[ but originally known as the Fish Gallery.
]
Components
Arranged "to move the viewer through them and through the space surrounding them",The Collection
Official website. Retrieved 23 April 2013. the installation comprises the following pieces (in order of proximity to the entrance):
# ''Torqued Spiral (Closed Open Closed Open Closed)'' (''Torsión espiral (cerrada abierta cerrada abierta cerrada)'' (2003–04);
# ''Torqued Ellipse'' (''Torsión elíptica'') (2003–04);
# ''Double Torqued Ellipse'' (''Torsión elíptica doble'') (2003–04);
# ''Snake'' (''Serpiente'') (1994–97);
# ''Torqued Spiral (Right Left)'' (''Torsión espiral (derecha izquierda)'' (2003–04);
# ''Torqued Spiral (Open Left Closed Right)'' (''Torsión espiral (izquierda abierta derecha cerrada'') (2003–04);
# ''Between the Torus and the Sphere'' (''Entre el toro y la esfera'') (2003–05);
# ''Blind Spot Reversed'' (''Punto ciego invertido'') (2003–05).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matter of Time
Steel sculptures in Spain
2005 sculptures
Installation art works
Sculptures by Richard Serra