Artist Statement-Homage, Tilted Arc

Tilted Arc was a work of sculpture by Richard Serra. It was installed in Federal Plaza in New York in 1981. It was a 120 twenty foot long, 12 feet high slab of steel curved around an arc sliced from the circumference of a circle with a radius of around 300 feet. The work was upwardly oriented, almost vertical, but tilted in from the top on the inside of the arc by 12 inches. Hence the title, Tilted Arc. It might have easily reminded a viewer of the last remaining section of a ship that had been swept ashore by a storm and long abandoned, a happening so far back in time that the facts of the event are now irretrievable.

The installation of the sculpture ignited immediate controversy.  It had detractors who called it ugly, oppressive, and overbearing.  It was also said to be interfering with reasonable enjoyment and utility of the plaza.  Additionally, it was said to be a capable asset if someone wanted to blow up the building. If a bomb were placed correctly, it was theorized, Tilted Arc could act as a shield that could intensify the blast effects of an explosion. For sure it was rusty, and it was also frequently defaced by graffiti vandals. After a tumultuous 9-year stay, Tilted Arc was cut into pieces and hauled away to storage. Serra has said that he now considers the work destroyed.

But traces of the work are still readily discernible. Much has been written about the controversy. The work energized a bare wire that functioned as a graph. At one end of the graph the purely functional, at the other the purely aesthetic. Serra’s work provoked the public to question the limits of artistic autonomy in relationship to the greater good as expressed by those whose daily lives were affected by the work. In hindsight it seems most likely that Serra’s Tilted Arc failed to find a balance between beauty and utility that was palatable to those most affected by its presence, a failure at both ends of the spectrum.

My own interest in the work and the controversy did not begin until 1990, the year after its removal. Tilted Arc was gone before I knew it existed. But a coincidence that may seem irrelevant binds me to the work. In 1981, the year that Tilted Arc was installed, I was a young sailor in the US Navy stationed aboard a large US Navy cruiser. A 120-foot section of hull could have been sliced from the ship and planted in the plaza. The resemblance to Tilted Arc would have been uncanny. This foreshadowing seems prescient now, and in other areas of artistic output I have found that personal history has followed close behind, waiting for my inner archeologist to discern the pattern put in place so long ago.

With my homage to Serra’s Tilted Arc, entitled sensibly enough, Homage-Tilted Arc, I will reexamine Serra’s formal and conceptual strategy. Seeking to reposition the work so it can function in a kinder and gentler way, my Homage will be placed in an out of the way pasture. The viewer must now come to the sculpture. A desire to see and be near the work replaces Serra’s insistence that his Tilted Arc must be tolerated as is, or not at all.  To see the Homage is now an invitation that may be accepted or rejected.

With this softening of the conceptual approach to the presentation of the work comes a softening of the form as well.  No longer a massive monolith of rusted steel, Homage has been softened and dematerialized. Using organic materials to construct a facsimile of the original work, Homage will retain its original dimensions. But now locust poles will form the main shape. Spaced to allow light and air to move through the carved-out space, animals and people can easily pass through the now open framework.  The many knot holes so characteristic of locust poles will (hopefully) house nesting birds from spring through summer. Turkey vultures will perch atop the poles, wings spread wide to warm themselves on chilly mornings with the rays of the rising sun. On clear bright days, the sun will carve its arc across the sky. As it moves the shadows of the poles will spin around their footings. As seasons change the shadows will advance and retreat. Now surrounded by woods and field, with animals grazing in its fold, this homage to tilted arc will be a reminder of the eventual softening of hard edges, and the inevitable ceasing of even the seemingly most durable of things.