Laura Bleiberg: June 2012 Archives

Michael Heizer's megalithic outdoor installation, Levitated Mass, opened to the public Sunday on a crystalline day.

It is monumental in size, yet minimalist in feel, situated at the northwest corner of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's 20-acre campus: a 340-ton, granite boulder poised (and bolted) to the walls of a 456-foot-long concrete walkway, centered in a field of decomposed granite. The visitor ramp/walkway descends to 15 feet below the rock, giving the viewer a rare underside perspective of the artwork. (Not that the bottom of a chunk of granite is so much different from the top or sides...) 

It's possible that the mass does seem to float as you walk towards it, but the conditions on opening day were not conducive for that effect, as is obvious from the picture below. (Photos by Mike Rogers) That's Heizer in the yellow polo shirt and park ranger-style hat, surrounded by photographers.