Yesterday we left you cowering beneath the two huge slabs of metal that combine to make Richard Serra’s Trip Hammer, having earlier discussed where else you can see examples of his work on our London walks.
Today we’ll have a closer look at this precariously balanced piece and ponder exactly what is the meaning behind it.
Of course the main point that we like to make time and again on our Walks of London is that, no matter where you are standing in this great city look around you.
London is a city of surprises and on our London walking tours we make a point of creating wonder out of the ordinary.
But for now, let’s return to Trip Hammer.
Richard Serra was born in San Francisco in 1939. Whilst at university he helped support himself by working in steel mills, and this would later have an enormous impact on his art and an influence on the materials he chose to use in his art.
Although he has worked in lead and other materials, examples of which can be seen in the main hub of the Energy and Process wing, steel has become his preferred material for his art.
With Trip Hammer you can actually see how he likes to use the very steeliness of the steel to create an abstract that doesn’t represent anything, but which most certainly makes you ponder it, perhaps even fear it.
It is, in effect, taking the concept of Marcel Duchamp’s “ready mades” and using an ordinary, everyday object, that is not really meant to be seen, and displaying it in such away as to make the spectator not just look at it but to also wonder about it. Both to stand in awe before it and be apprehensive about the potential for disaster that emanates from the work - it is, if you like, the ultimate in chance in art.
But there is also the natural art in the steel itself.
Steel, of course, degrades and rusts - you can see this on the two pieces of steel he uses for Trip Hammer, both of which show signs of rust.
So this element adds another dimension to the work, ensuring that it will keep changing and developing as a piece.
Amazingly in Spain in 2005, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid announced that they had somehow managed to “mislay” a 38-tonne sculpture that Serra had created!
Our next posting will look at another intriguing work in Tate Modern where chance really does play a part in the very creation of the painting itself.
Be sure to check out the various London walks we offer and don’t forget that we also do a nightly Jack the Ripper Tour that you might like to join us on.
Tags: Energy and Process, Jack the Ripper Tour, london walking tours, London walks, marcel Duchamp, My walks of London, Richard Serra, Tate Modern, Trip Hammer
