Everybody not only must get stoned, everybody is.
340-ton rock makes its debut at L.A. County Museum of Art: A crowd of people attends the opening of 'Levitated Mass', artist Michael Heizer's exhibit which features a 340-ton megalith rock now on permanent display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, June 24. The massive granite rock made headlines in March when it was slowly carted along a winding, 105-mile journey from Riverside County to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As Don Rodrigo in the comments puts it: "Wow. The Pet Rock craze is back. But this time it's a government pet rock; hence, the huge size, the over-the-top logistics involved and the massive expense."
As Gloria in the comments puts it: "This form of art reminds me of Obama. He doesn't do anything either; he can't do anything because he has no skills. So he thinks up things in the abstract, like health care or special immigration waivers. But just like the artist here, he doesn't have the skills to create anything intelligent or intelligible or beautiful or truthful."
I try to become more cynical everyday, but lately I just can't keep up.
Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 25, 2012 11:56 AMDude, that doesn't rock.
Posted by: Andy at June 25, 2012 8:59 AMHey ! ... I got a great idea ! Let's go stand under a huge boulder perched precariously on concrete edges built by union contactors in a metropolitan area sitting astride an active fault system !
It's got electrolytes !
Posted by: OhioDude at June 25, 2012 9:31 AMThis is LA. Gravity will not be long denied. The salt will find its way in the concrete, the steel will corrode. It'll happen one rainy night, probably won't even make a sound. That rock's going to the bottom of the trench, they won't have the money to raise it, and they'll quietly fill in the trench. There might be a tiny nub above grade for the kids to play on. Later generations will wonder wtf were they thinking. All this, too, is Art of a sort.
Posted by: John A. Fleming at June 25, 2012 10:40 AMThis is what happens when schools no longer teach or value skills. In the past, an artist had to be able to DO something--draw, paint, use a chisel, etc. Now all the "artist" does is think something and then have other people execute the "thought." In this case, the execution involved digging up a rock, lifting it onto a truck, etc.
This form of art reminds me of Obama. He doesn't do anything either; he can't do anything because he has no skills. So he thinks up things in the abstract, like health care or special immigration waivers. But just like the artist here, he doesn't have the skills to create anything intelligent or intelligible or beautiful or truthful.
The core cultural component of being human is lost when nobody knows how to make anything anymore. The rock piece of art is no different from an ape's act of picking up a stone and throwing it.
Posted by: Gloria at June 25, 2012 11:46 AMAn irresistible temptation to graffiti vandals. I won't say I'm not going to laugh when someone tags it.
Posted by: Mike James at June 25, 2012 12:00 PM"An irresistible temptation to graffiti vandals."
A better target: The homes and prized possessions of the so-called intellectuals who foisted this garbage on Los Angeles. ;-)
Posted by: pst314 at June 25, 2012 12:24 PMThat's also going to be an irresistible attraction to urban midnight rock climbers. The first ascent will be soon recorded, as will the four traverses (two sides both ways). Without a crash pad below, a fall off the traverse looks to be heinous. The practiced eye can already spot several possible lines, and the moves needed to connect the holds. Police and security guards notwithstanding, it will be done. Because it's there.
If the next time you go you see little spots of chalk on the high edges and holds, and little smears of black on the low ones, you'll know.
Posted by: John A. Fleming at June 25, 2012 12:58 PMThat music vid brings the whole thing home. Why are those poor people cheering? And why is the title wrong?
Posted by: Badco at June 25, 2012 1:19 PMWow. The Pet Rock craze is back. But this time it's a government pet rock; hence, the huge size, the over-the-top logistics involved and the massive expense.
Next: the LA Colliseum should be turned into the world's largest Chia Pet, and it better cost at least $1 billion or it's not worth the effort. That's still cheaper than high-speed rail to nowhere.
Posted by: Don Rodrigo at June 25, 2012 1:56 PMPrivate funds were supposedly used to move and install this.
It ain't art; see Scruton, "Why Beauty Matters."
The real art was conning people into donating $10 million for this.
Posted by: BUTCH at June 25, 2012 2:06 PMHey, I saw this performance at the Tacoma Dome: Dylan and TP&THBs. Great sound.
Post Modern art has already died, but it seems the dead body is still a bit warm. Pity. Maybe we need to hire the guy from your last post to deal the final blow to this stupid art.
Posted by: Casey Klahn at June 25, 2012 5:16 PMIt needs to be turned counterclockwise on its vertical axis by about 42 degrees to allow the viewer to grasp the full implications of Man's Impact On Nature.
A 50-pound shaped charge oughtta do it.
Posted by: BillT at June 25, 2012 10:02 PMWow. A big rock.
Posted by: Gary Ogletree at June 26, 2012 9:10 AMWhat, no quartz? Take it back. We don't want no rock ain't got no quartz or nuttin.
Posted by: Gary Ogletree at June 26, 2012 9:15 AMHa.
This is the most artistic rock, ever.
You're all just jealous because you didn't think of it first.
JWM
Posted by: jwm at June 26, 2012 10:42 AMIt is a step in the right direction. It is not ugly, it merely "is".
Posted by: Mikey NTH at June 26, 2012 10:44 AMHey, good song. Brings back memories of stacking boxes in a CA warehouse, along with a couple of other manpower guys, with that music playing. I've wondered since what happened to the Gypsy Joker who was going to be put on trial for the fatal shooting of a Hell's Angel.
Posted by: chuck at June 26, 2012 11:25 AMGary, Gary, Gary, The three main components of granite are quartz, feldspar, and other bits such as micas, diorites, olivines. Quartz predominates.
Posted by: John A. Fleming at June 26, 2012 10:35 PMFrom the 1963 Communist Goals:
22) continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression; eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings; substute shapeless, awkward, and meaningless forms.
23) Control art critics and directors of art museums; promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.
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