James Newton

Obsession is what it comes down to. It is difficult to think without obsession, and it is impossible to create something without a foundation that is rigorous, incontrovertible, and, in fact, to some degree repetitive. Repetition is the ritual of obsession. Repetition is a way to jumpstart the indecision of beginning. To persevere and to begin over and over again is to continue the obsession with work. Work comes out of work. In order to work you must already be working.

—Richard Serra

Serra often constructs site-specific installations, frequently on a scale that dwarfs the observer. His site-specific works challenge viewers’ perception of their bodies in relation to interior spaces and landscapes, and his work often encourages movement in and around his sculptures. Large plates of steel are often his material of choice, huge heavy planes that give you the feeling that you would be crushed should they fall on you.

This feeling of weight makes space tangible as a bodily experience. As Adam Caruso explains in ‘Gardens of experience’ it is a work that requires the participation of the viewer to make it active. “In this work, ‘Strike’ by Richard Serra, the sculpture is a plate of steel jammed into the corner of the gallery. The point is that you view the work differently as you move across the room; this engagement with and experience of the gallery are what the work is about. It is a work that required the viewer to make it complete, the viewer affects the work, and the work affects the viewer.”

As with “The lights going on and off“ by Martin Creed it is a work that affects the viewer to such an extent that they become part of the concept of the work, without them it does not function so it cannot be truly photographed. This sense experience can never be conveyed through images alone.