Richard Serra sculpture, Gravity

Site-specific sculpture, Gravity, designed by Richard Serra, in collaboration with the architect, James Inigo Freed, to create a metaphor for the rupture of civilization that would exist in a harmonious relationship with its architectural context. The monolithic twelve foot steel slab, weighing nearly thirty tons, is inserted into the bottom of the Concourse stairs near the black granite wall in the western corner of the Hall of Witness, the Museum's central gathering place. The work, angled from the black wall and anchored to the last three stairs, cuts the space asymmetrically, disrupting the sense of continuity and acting to destabilize the space. The artist has intentionally left the finish on the steel in its raw, industrial state, reinforcing the work's connection to the space and the architect's use of materials.