Levitated Mass, Outdoor art installation at LACMA, United States
Levitated Mass is a sculpture on the grounds of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, consisting of a single granite block positioned over a long concrete walkway. The path slopes gently beneath the rock, so you can walk directly underneath it.
Michael Heizer conceived the work in the late 1960s as part of his ideas about monumental land art. The installation was finally realized in 2012 after a suitable boulder was found and transported to the museum site.
The name plays on the apparent weightlessness of the giant stone when you walk beneath it and look up. Visitors experience a quiet reversal of expectations about how heavy and menacing a boulder can feel.
Access is free and available during museum hours, as the work sits outdoors on the museum campus. The concrete path is level and easy to navigate for wheelchairs or strollers.
The granite came from a quarry in Riverside County and was moved here over eleven nights of travel. Thousands of people lined the roads to watch the slow progress of the colossal stone through Southern California towns.
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