SFX: Soundbed that places us in outer space, not in an art museum.  

NARRATOR: 

A row of metal cubes hanging on a wall. Sculptures like this make a lot of people go “huh?”  

GARY GARRELS: 

He was interested in the real world. How an artist could insert something into a space or a place and completely alter our understanding of what that place was. 

CAITLIN HASKELL:  

And I love it because it’s — it is so strange.  

NARRATOR:  

We’re here with curators Gary Garrels and Caitlin Haskell. 

HASKELL:  

He’s trying to get you to contend with something that is really alien!  

GARRELS:  

The relationship between an object and the ground balance, the formal qualities of the materials that one is using.  

HASKELL:  

You see almost no seams. I mean, that is the trick. It’s like metal origami. He’s using a galvanized steel that allows for these clean, thin surfaces that are visually almost identical. When you actually look closely at them, each of those patterns of the spangling on the metal is different and unique. One of the nice stories about this is that it’s a lacquer that was used on Harley Davidson motorcycles. The people who are really good at repairing these are, like, auto-body guys. It’s this incredible craftsmanship to make something that looks very light but also has all of these trappings of industry, too. 

GARRELS: 

The horizontal line of the blue is like a horizon line. And your eye moves up over it, to the wall, which really becomes part of the piece. We begin to become conscious of the way they’re floating off the floor. They’re almost defiant of gravity—  

SFX: Open space sound bed slowly fades