Pilgrims and Caretakers

I hope you've read Geoff Dyer's great piece on Walter De Maria's Lightning Field and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty in last week's New Yorker. Dyer's a lovely writer who comes to his subject (no matter what it is) from his own unique perspective of curiosity, exploration and creativity. Of his many previous books, a couple have dealt with art. The first was The Ongoing Moment,  his take on photography, and the second was Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, a novel in which the main character is an art journalist and the first half of the book takes place at the Venice Biennale.

In this latest art essay, Dyer meanders (literally and literarily) through these great works of Land Art, and through larger ideas of place and pilgrimage. It's based on a lecture he gave last year, which is itself worth a look, whether or not you read the essay, or if you don't subscribe and can't get past the New Yorker's paywall.

Dyer speaks about visiting these places and how that act, the physical travel that is required, makes up so much of our experience of the works themselves. This is true for almost everyone. The exception being (it is easy to forget) the caretakers of these works, particularly those for The Lightning Field, and for some of De Maria's other works like The New York Earth Room and The Broken Kilometer, both in New York City. And it is these caretakers who were the subject of another essay I hope you'll read, this one from a not-so-past-issue of Art Lies and written by Graham T. Beck. As he writes of the three people who have been largely responsible for these particular three works: 

"Between the three of them—Bill, Patti and Robert—they’ve spent sixty-eight years with Walter De Maria’s art, which would be impressive under most circumstances, but given the crucial role that time plays in these creations, it’s really quite exceptional."

In a culture that fosters single visits to blockbuster exhibitions of often hundreds of works of arts, Beck's highlighting of this alternate experience of art feels refreshing and even revelatory. Read it, and then at 3pm eastern time today join the Dia Foundation's #AskDia forum on Twitter where Bill Dilworth (the 20-year-plus New York Earth Room caretaker) will be answering your tweeted questions live. Very cool, and los to keep you entertained, and properly distracted, on this spring Friday.

Update on Friday, April 22, 2011 at 02:01PM by Hol Art Books

Dia Art Foundation hosted a Twitter forum (#AskDia) on Friday, April 22 with Bill Dilworth, who's been the caretaker of Walter De Maria's New York Earth Room since 1989. Unfortunately it didn't generate a lot of participation, but I think some nice tidbits came out. I especially loved the idea of the Room's "quality of remoteness". Here are the slightly edited questions and answers:

Q. You've spent so many years with The New York Earth Room, what's the longest a visitor has ever stayed there? (@holartbooks)

A. There have been people who have spent hours, but one guy came every day for a year!

Q. Lightning Field's remoteness and Earth Room's ban of photos indicate De Maria's fascination w/ experience, could you talk more on that? (@trillary)

A. Walter doesn't want you to relate to the work as a photo. It's all about the experience of being there. By not allowing photos, it gives The New York Earth Room a quality of remoteness.

Q. Looking back on it, has anything really surprised you about your experience there? Or about what you think about the work now? (@holartbooks)

A. The longer I'm here, the more I like it—that's surprising to me. Another thing that surprises me is how popular the it became. I never anticipated guide books becoming interested. And it surprises me that The New York Earth Room is in such good shape after all these years.

Update on Friday, April 22, 2011 at 02:14PM by Hol Art Books

A 5 minute WNYC piece from December 2008 on Bill Dilworth and The New York Earth Room.