So what do one of the world's largest radio telescopes and homemade pie have in common??? They were both on Highway 60 in New Mexico on the way to visit my latest bucket list item-Walter de Maria's seminal land art piece The Lightning Field
photo courtesy of the Dia Foundation and John Cliett
The Karl Jansky Very Large Array or VLA Radio Telescope is an astonishing instrument. Click the link if you really want to learn about it (really you do!) but basically a radio telescope, as opposed to a normal optical telescope, receives radio waves rather than visible light and can mathematically combine signals from multiple dishes to get the equivalent resolution and sensitivity of one huge dish that would be miles wide but physically impossible to build. The VLA has twenty seven 82 foot diameter dishes that weigh 230 tons each. They move on a Y shaped grid of railway tracks and can be deployed in different configurations as wide as 22 miles apart. It was built in the late 70s and the location was chosen because there is zero light and electromagnetic pollution on this vast rural plain.
I photographed the VLA extensively in 2000 (beautiful images if I do say so myself) but unfortunately all of those images are on analog 35mm slide film in my basement and I am not home to scan them! Ellen was along for the ride this time and I really wanted her to see it.
You can see some of the railroad tracks below.
This is the maintenance hanger where they service the antennae. You can get an idea of scale from the pick-up truck.
This is the beast that moves the telescope around for configuration or service.
The VLA is a fascinating place to visit if you ever get the chance and Pie Town, NM, population 186, down the road a bit further is a great place to eat pie! Folks are trying to bring the town back from extinction and the home made pie competition is fierce.
But back to the main event. I have wanted to see Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field for a long time. It is in an undisclosed location in rural NM and the only way to see it is by appointment through the Dia Foundation. Reservations go on sale on Feb 1st for the year and basically they sell out that day. We secured 5 spots and Ellen and I invited our NC friends and art groupies MJ, BethAnn, and Elizabeth (same crew that invited us for hot air ballooning last week) to join us so we had the place to ourselves. De Maria has strickly proscribed how he wants people to experience the piece: you are driven by van from Quemado NM and you stay on site for 24 hours in the original homestead cabin. They give you no real information about the piece before you arrive so you can form your own impressions during your time there. Only 6 people max can see it at a time and no photographs are allowed. This was really hard for me but I honored his wishes and it allowed me to experience the work rather than document it. From Dia:
The Lightning Field (1977), by the American sculptor Walter De Maria, is a work of Land Art situated in a remote area of the high desert of western New Mexico. It is comprised of 400 polished stainless steel poles installed in a grid array measuring one mile by one kilometer. The poles -- two inches in diameter and averaging 20 feet and 7½ inches in height -- are spaced 220 feet apart and have solid pointed tips that define a horizontal plane. A sculpture to be walked in as well as viewed, The Lightning Field is intended to be experienced over an extended period of time. A full experience of The Lightning Field does not depend upon the occurrence of lightning, and visitors are encouraged to spend as much time as possible in the field, especially during sunset and sunrise. In order to provide this opportunity, Dia offers overnight visits during the months of May through October.
Commissioned and maintained by Dia Art Foundation, The Lightning Field is recognized internationally as one of the late-twentieth century's most significant works of art and exemplifies Dia's commitment to the support of art projects whose nature and scale exceed the limits normally available within the traditional museum or gallery.
When we arrived around 3pm I was a little underwhelmed. At that time of day the sun was such that you can only see a couple of the poles from the porch of the house and you wonder what all of the fuss is about. I read all of De Maria's technical notes about the installation in the cabin and was completely fascinated by the incredible detail and technical accuracy of the installation. Tolerances were 1/16" between the poles and an elaborate underground grounding network was in place when and if the field attracted lightning. Then I started walking through and around the field. I decided to do it solo and my compatriots did the same. We stopped for dinner (provided by Dia in the frig) and then I started to walk around the field at sunset. It was magical. The stainless poles reflected the blue sky and as you looked up one of the poles (about 22' high) the top of the pole completely disappeared and melded with the sky. I tried walking all kinds of patterns-diagonals, perimeters, etc. If you hold onto the poles there is an amazing vibration from the wind as the poles are anchored many feet below the ground in concrete. The ground is just scrub vegetation around the poles and there was lots of evidence that animals, including some very large animals, liked the field as well. I couldn't identify the footprints but we thought it might be elk. The next morning early there were similar revelations. You could see all 400 poles distinctly from the porch in the full 1 mile by 1 km grid. I've never really had this much time to experience a single work of art and it was a transformative experience for me. We didn't experience lightning during our stay (lightning season is more July and August) but it seemed completely unnecessary for our already extraordinary experience. I didn't want the van to come get me the next day. It was a day off the grid and very much in the present. Here is a shot of our crew back in Quemado.
We parted ways with our NC friends and Ellen and I headed off to Phoenix for a fun reunion with three of our former Cassilhaus artists-in residence, Marie Navarre and Mayme Kratz from the Phoenix/Tempe area and Alan Bur Johnson from Jerome. We stayed with our dear friend Lisa Sette and her husband Peter Shikany and they hosted a dinner.
Ellen, me, Marie, Lisa, Mayme, and Alan
Lisa owns Lisa Sette Gallery and is the gallerist for all three of these amazing artists. It was the first time we had seen her dazzling new midtown location. We stayed in Lisa and Peter's fabulous guest house which was actually on the cover of the premier issue of Dwell magazine.
I was sad to have to take Ellen to the airport after only a day in Phoenix but somebody has to work! I stayed on for a week to start my planning for the West Coast leg of my trip. Temperatures in Phoenix were brutal so I was forced to use their swimming pool every day to swim laps.
I also managed to get in a wonderful studio visit with Mayme. Her work involves casting natural materials in resin. It is a fascinating process to watch and I was amazed at the range of materials she is using in her work.
It was so great to get to catch up with all of these old friends and Lisa and Peter's place was such a wonderful oasis. I totally bonded with my dog-sitting charge, Jaxon, too. Now it is off to LA! Stay tuned for Week Seventeen.
“Cut my pie into four pieces, I don’t think I could eat eight.” -Yogi Berra
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