Artist, Richard Serra: This piece was made when. I was very involved with the articulation of process, and having whatever it was that you did reveal itself to the viewer in terms of its making. There was nothing hidden.
I took a two by four foot lead plate, and I put it into the corner, just to get it out of the way. And I noticed that when it bisected the corner, that it free-stood. And I thought, 'Isn't that interesting. Once it's set into the corner, it can't fall to the right or it can't fall to the left. There's no way for it to physically move. The juncture of the wall is holding the plate up. And I thought, 'voila!'
And I realized that if I took this to a bigger scale there was the potential to divide and declare a room. And this moved me out of my studio into a larger situation.
I hired some riggers, and we took an eight by 24 steel plate, and we put it up. And someone saw it in this gallery and asked me if I wanted to do that kind of piece in a 36-foot square room. I said, 'Oh great! I'll put four plates in four corners.' The corner is holding the plate up: nothing more.
The first piece was shown in 1972. This second piece was made in 1986. Here, the plates are ten by twenty.
And when you walk into the space, you are definitely in the confines of the work. There is nothing else but the work. So the room really becomes the condition of the piece. You have four plates coming out of four corners, and the piece forces you to its center to comprehend all four spaces.