CURATOR, ANN TEMKIN: This 10 by 10 foot work on the floor is one of the types of work known as a “channel piece.” Each of these 10 rectangular channels, painted this beautiful turquoise, is identical in size and is spaced identically from the next one from the beginning to the end.
ARTIST, CHARLES RAY: My name is Charles Ray. I'm a sculptor. What makes that not an industrial frame? For instance, let's say electrical grid generator or something would be slid into it? It wants to slip into non-art. And it always comes back out and wins as art.
One time a collector who bought my sculpture I crated the sculpture, and I sent 12 empty crates with the sculpture. And when he arrived, he was just furious that, you know, why did he have to pay for these 12 empty crates?
I said, they're not empty, that they contain the space that goes around the sculpture. And it was just my point that the sculpture is made of space. It doesn't need space the way furniture needs space, it needs the space to make itself, in a way.
ANN TEMKIN: Space is as much of an ingredient or an actor within this piece as the aluminum itself. It's almost like our materials description on the label should say, “aluminum” and “air,” instead of just “aluminum.”