The Art Monitor
ArtNews Article on City by Michael Heizer
Michael Heizer’s Epic Desert Installation
More Than 50 Years in the Making
Has Finally Arrived
By: Alex Greenberger
A Note from TS Project Art
Before delving into the article, I would like to share that while this installation will be open to a wide variety of critical commentary, both embracing and dismissive, to focusing upon aesthetic appeal, to the implications of such a massive intervention upon a pristine landscape, to wild hubris on the part of the artist. I somewhat reluctantly, have fallen on the side of being completely swept up, and awe struck by the undertaking, and finding it ultimately a playground of sorts for all minimalists at heart.
ARTICLE IS EXCERPTED
Link to full article in ArtNews is below.
On Friday, the Triple Aught Foundation, the nonprofit Heizer had founded to help fund the epic project, announced that visits can be made to City starting on September 2 by reservation only. It will be the first time that the general public is allowed to see the piece —an iconic work of the Land art movement—in full.
Millions of dollars and years in the making, City is more than a mile and a half long. Few other contemporary artworks in the world equal it in scale, and because of that, many have been anticipating it for years.
Portions of it are composed of dirt, rock, and concrete, and there are parts that are labeled “Complexes” because they appear to resemble urban units from a long-lost civilization. Like many works by Heizer, the project has involved direct interventions into the landscape, which the artist has transformed via elegant, minimalist forms.
Because Heizer’s ambitions were so grand for City, the project involved figures from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Dia Art Foundation, and other organizations, as well as dealer Virginia Dwan, one of Heizer’s earliest and longest supporters.
In a statement on Friday, Dwan said, “Michael Heizer is one of the greatest innovators of our time and I still believe today what I thought when Heizer began the City, that this work demanded to be built. It is extraordinary that he has completed one of the most important artworks of this century, over decades in the making, and I have been fortunate enough to witness this transformative sculptural intervention from the very beginning.”
January 2, 2022
Sculptor Anke Eilergerhard
On view at Anna Laudel Gallery, Berlin
Artnet news: December 6, 2021
“What You Need to Know: For more than 30 years, Berlin-based artist Anke Eilergerhard has experimented with ideas of “layer cakes” within her practice, in ways that are both humorous and profound. Since 2004 she has been creating sculptural swirls that are reminiscent of whipped cream. Her current exhibition “Hysterische Balance” (Hysterical Balance) at Anna Laudel Gallery brings together works the artist made over the course of the pandemic, including the exhibition’s titular work Hysterische Balance, a three-part sculptural ensemble of monumental works that resemble soft-serve ice cream dollops.
Why We Like It: Eilergerhard uses a type of silicone called polyorganosiloxane to create her signature “icing on the cake“ sculptures—a material used by DIYers and plastic surgeons alike. In this exhibition, the artist both continues to explore and expand upon her existing visual vocabulary towards imagery that resembles scientific imagery of spores and pollens.” Artnet news: December 6, 2021
Why I like it (as in TS Project Art): With the passing of yet another difficult year far and wide, on so many levels, and issues ongoing that are far too numerous to list. What the artist’s work elicits for me and speaks to, as in the exhibition's title “Hysterical Balance,” acknowledging the collective imbalance felt by all during these past two years. Eilergerhard choice of subject matter alludes to the ephemeral and impermanence of all things with a hint of humor necessary to make it digestible.
“My observations and experiences are the basis of all of my works. For me, it is about making things visible that I cannot put into words and that are nevertheless universal. A cake with a whipped cream top is a piece of heaven on earth. The whipped cream is for me the perfect sculptural form. It has something cosmic. It reflects the longing for paradise.” Anke Eilergerhard