Dia: Beacon

               The Dia: Beacon trip was in many ways a pleasant surprise, as I had not been before and did not know what exactly to expect. The first thing that struck me was the spaciousness of the museum, of course specifically needed for such large-scale installations, but impressive in scale none the less. Since it was an old industrial building, there were many motifs of repeated, vast spaces that worked in many ways to influence the feelings of those inhabiting them. Rows of skylights and wide, column less spaces, coupled with overall high ceilings and flat concrete or brick walls seemed to extend the space into infinity. I was actually surprised at how sparse the sculptures were, anything but crowded and given plenty of room to be considered independently of surrounding work, an important aspect to any exhibition that is often curtailed to use space more efficiently. I suppose when dealing with such large scale work the curators have to make accommodations for it.

                Directly beyond the entrance was an incredibly large work by Walter De Mira which consisted of a red carpet with horizontal patterns made with white hexagon bar. Any sense of materiality was almost indiscernible, reducing the three-dimensional shapes to fields of color. In regards to space, the long repetition of the hexagon bars created a heightened sense of perspective as they went from discernable objects to layered lines as they receded. One almost perceives a grid along which these are aligned, set in patterns in a manner similar to holes in a punched tape from early digital machines. I imagined that these patterns certainly corresponded to something, but it is of course never revealed.

                Another highlight of the visit was to finally see work by Richard Serra in person. It certainly did not disappoint, conveying all of the weightiness of steel and elegance of curved surfaces that has been so discussed throughout my education. Physically walking in and around the massive steel shapes was a much better way to experience and learn about space making than anything in the lectures I heard when I was still studying architecture. There was a newfound appreciation for purely formal sculpture such as this, as often I have not experienced them firsthand and only have photographs to make judgement by. I suppose the lesson learned here is that art must be experienced in order to be appreciated, it cannot be something holed up in the pages of a textbook or laid out on the slides of a presentation.

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