Cite Spring 1985 Citeations dramatically assertive. The sheer bulk of the installation creates an experience that is essentially confrontational: 45". 90°. 180° is not a piece to be taken in at a 45°, 90°, 180° glance; one must walk around it, measure oneself against it. Sculpture by Michael Heizer However, it would be a mistake to view Engineering Court 45°. 90", 180" as yet another example of Rice University overblown public sculpture, a piece pumped with steroids to fit a prescribed Reviewed by Alison de Lima Greene space. The manipulation of scale and per- ception has been one of Heizer's chief The image of the standing stone - isolated, concerns since his first mature works of enigmatic, evocative - was rediscovered by the late 1960s. For example, his Nine the Romantic painters of the early 19th Nevada Depressions of 1968, in which the century. The German Caspar David Fried- dry-lake floor of the desert became the rich populated his landscapes with dol- arena for a series of site-specific cuttings mans which acted as silent witnesses to a into the ground measuring up to 120 feet primordial Nordic heritage. In England, in length, is balanced by Windows of William Blake employed Stonehenge as a 1969, etched into a single basalt block of setting for illustrations of his poems "Mil- sidewalk, each cutting roughly the size of a ton" and "Jerusalem." John Constable also match stick. The scheme of 45°. 90°. 180° turned to Stonehenge, sketching it severjl itself has undergone a number of permu- times. He described the monument in the tations. It had its genesis in an unrealized RIVER O A K S 1856 Royal Academy catalogue as "stand- project of 1970-71, Vertical Displacement, ing remote on a bare and boundless heath, a proposal for reshaping the rock face of a as much unconnected with events of past mountain (first in Switzerland, then in ages as with the uses of the present, [it] Montana) by cutting a block from the carries you beyond all historical records slope, replacing it further down the face, into the obscurity of a totally unknown and allowing the spill to gather at the bot- period." For the Romantics of this genera- tom. Out of this project grew the concept tion such imagery functioned as a para- of 45". 90°, 180", reflecting the vertical digm of the sublime, for contemplating thrust of the mountain, the plane of the man's place in nature, of the conflicts of earth, and the diagonal slope of the rock time past and present. face.' gSg t TANGLEWOOD 45°, 90°, 180°, 1984, Michael Heizer sculpture (Photo by Ivan dalla Tana, courtesy Janie C. Lee Gallery) A century and a half later, Michael Heizer In 1980 Heizer gave shape to this concept both extends and converts this tradition. with a cardboard model 45", 90". The installation of 45°. 90°. 180° on the \8<f /Geometric Abstraction (a model Rice University campus invites compari- that was realized on a monumental scale son to Stonehenge or the stone circles of for the 1984 exhibition of Heizer's work Brittany, Cornwall, and Scotland. At the at the Museum of Contemporary Art in same time, Heizer remains aloof from Los Angeles). In this scheme all forms these precedents; unlike the artists of the were purified and absolute, with prismatic 19th century, Heizer interprets the theme and rectangular blocks arranged in a har- without nostalgia. Furthermore, as is indi- monic progression across a stage-like plat- cated by the title, this is no random con- form that terminated in a 45° slope. As a figuration; Heizer's structure is a carefully model, this piece invites reading on any formulated geometric essay with a classical scale, from a table-top piece (the original will forming the basis of the composition. was 51" long, 13" high) to a visionary and COMPANY gargantuan city plan. Of course the outstanding feature which distinguishes Heizer's work from the Heizer returned to the theme in 1982 Romantic tradition is that the pieces are with six versions of 45°, 90°, 180° - three actual constructions. Rather than sum- small, three large • which established the moning an edifice from the distant past, scheme found in the Rice installation. The 45". 90°. 180" occupies a tangible and first of this series was made of volcanic absolute present. The 66- to 70-ton gran- scoria with weathered-steel bases, the red ite slabs (each measuring approximately eccentric rocks providing a dramatic coun- 12'8""20'*18'"20'8" along the sides, terpoint to the clean construction of the 2727 KIPLING ROAD HOUSTON TEXAS 7 7 0 9 8 (7131528 1234 roughly 30" thick, mounted on supports. In the fifth of the series the 12'"I8'K3'6" concrete pedestals) are relationship between stone and pedestal Cite Spring 1985 ARE MADE TO ORDER. W in " Mmnmimmm"™™™ w ^ Left to right: 90°, 45°, and 180°, elements of 4>°, 90°, 180° by Michael Heizer (Photo by Paul Hester) was shifted as granite slabs were placed on - engineer as creator - is disconcertingly rwlimit H U M , t j iin diamond-plate aluminum bases; in this apposite in conjunction with the new case the bases took on clearly industrial sculpture as Heizer is an astute engineer. connotations while the stones were gener- Among the many aspects of 4V, 90", [AAJ Marvin Windows can be ally planar and discrete. It was the fourth 180° is its technical brilliance masked by i ** L^g made to order for you in of this series that formed the point of apparent simplicity; only the 45° slab I BJT^' any of more than 1.500 departure for the Rice installation. betrays the precariousness of its position. sizes and shapes. You can choose casements, gliders, double hungs, It was also in 1982 that Alice and George The true sophistication of 43", 90°, 180° single hungs, pictures, triangles, R. Brown decided to donate a major out- is revealed only on contemplation. Each trapezoids, even round top windows, door sculpture to Rice University, select- part of the installation contains a refer- ing the quadrangle of the Brown School of ence to the other parts. For example, the terrace doors and patio doors. Engineering as an appropriate site.1 After supports of the 90" and 43" slabs are All are extremely energy-efficient a number of artists were considered, the complementary as the 43° is held up by and made from beautiful Ponderosa commission was given to Heiier who pro- vertical trusses, the 90° slab by diagonals. pine. Yet they're no more expensive ceeded to redefine 45°. 90°, ISO0 in terms The seemingly static 180* slab is actually than other brands of quality windows. of scale, material, and composition. The placed on its pedestal not squarely as a location of the tripartite composition table top but at a jutting angle. The dis- within the quadrangle was determined at tinction between man-made bases, clearly an early stage and received final approval carefully poured and smoothed concrete, in March 1984. and, so-to-speak, found stone also breaks Texas Jambs down on close examination. The drill A deciding factor in the composition was holes which read from a distance as stria- 6304 ALDER 669 1333 Heizer's resolve to use indigenous mate- tions on the edges of the granite, nearby rial, resulting in the choice of Texas gran- reveal the deliberate and circular bite of ite quarried at Marble Falls. The slabs the drill, perhaps the sexiest aspect of the were taken from a natural layer, or exfoli- installation. The great mass of the pieces ation, of Texas pink granite; this "virgin" is belied by the discrete and narrow inset layer needed no cutting other than the lat- plinth below each base so that the bases eral drilling which determined the shape appear to be miraculously suspended just of the slabs, the proportions being estab- above the ground. Furthermore, the gran- lished by the layer's natural width. Sim- ite faces of the slabs are wonderfully ilarly, the dimensions and material of the responsive to changes in light: on a bright Houston's pedestals were dictated by the choice of day they glitter with hard intensity, in rain original coffee granite. Unlike the volcanic version of they become muted, at night they take on 45". 90°, 180° in which each rock is cha- a mysterious presence, blending into their store since 1973. racteristically shaped, or the later versions bases, appearing both imposing and of the 1982 series which allowed a certain ephemeral. Freshly roasted coffees, margin of irregularity, the shape of the Rice slabs is consistent throughout; varia- Although 43". 90°, 180° is predicated on a fine teas, Crabtree & Evelyn tion is introduced only by the natural classical structure of balance and harmony, condiments and toiletries, changes in the width of the exfoliation. the ultimate experience must be one of coffee and tea brewing accessories, awe. For those of us not attending classes The pedestals were prepared in October at Rice, a visit to the Engineering Court, gifts to please the palate and the eye. and November 1984; the granite was one that must be made partly on foot, quarried 4 December; and the installation takes on the nature of a pilgrimage. Given took place 8 and 9 December. In the pro- tin- present landscaping of the campus, it Coffees brewed to sample every day. cess of installation, the placement of the is impossible to view the installation from 45" slab was slightly refined: instead of a distance, but on entering the quadrangle being set in a prepared grove on the base, the material, scale, and reflective relation- lO - 6 Monday - Saturday the "toe" of the pedestal was moved back ships of 45", 90°, 18CP add up to a com- so that the slab literally bites into it, pro- manding presence that is at heart Roman- 2520 Rice Boulevard • Houston.