Situated on the slope above Red Square, Wright’s Triangle becomes a portal between North and South of Western’s campus. At night, the lights along the inside of the slabs flicker and pulse, creating an other-worldly experience.

“In my later work, the person who is navigating the space, his or her experience becomes the content. So, the whole subject-object relationship is reversed. The content is you! If you don’t walk into the work and engage with it, there isn’t any content.”

-Richard Serra

We can see this idea very present in Wright’s Triangle. If you don’t choose to engage with the sculpture, to enter it, walk around, observe, then it is simply just some metal slabs in the middle of the path. But if you engage with it then your experience becomes the art.

Built during an eventful period of time, Serra’s sculpture portrays a more subdued, solemn reflection of the circumstances of its creation. Between 1979-1980, the Rubik’s Cube was invented, war broke out between Iraq and Iran, John Lennon was killed, Star Wars, ABBA had their third and final concert tour, and Electric Light Orchestra reached peak popularity. More locally, Mt. St. Helens erupted before the sculpture was finished.

It is hard to know how much the current events at the time influenced Wright’s Triangle, as Serra claims not to be a political artist. However, there is a reflection of the times in his work. The artworks harsh edges and angular composition are a reflection of the modernist aesthetic. There is also an influence of minimalist artist present in his sculpture. Site-specificity was introduced in the mid-’60s, the idea being, “the coordinates of perception were established as existing not only between the spectator and the work but among spectator, artwork, and the place inhabited by both.” Richard Serra’s conviction that his sculpture belongs where they are placed and removing them, in essence, destroys them. The relationship between the viewer and the artwork is best described as “…contingent upon the viewer’s temporal movement in the space shared with the object. Thus, the work belonged to its site; if its site were to change, so would the interrelationship of object, context, and viewer. Such a reorientation of the perceptual experience of art made the viewer, in effect, the subject.”

A Reinterpretation


by Gabe Hopper-Manole


by Liv Miller


by Laurel Peterson

 

Contributions

Research & Photography – Gabe Hopper-Manole
Web Design & Content Writing – Liv Miller
Reinterpretations – Gabe Hopper-Manole, Liv Miller, Laurel Peterson

References

Richard Serra Hal Foster; Gordon Hughes, 1965-; B. H. D. Buchloh; ©2000
Richard Serra. (2018, April 12). Retrieved May 5, 2019, from https://gagosian.com/artists/richard-serra/
Richard Serra. (n/a). Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/richard-serra
O’Hagan, S. (2008, October 04). The interview: Richard Serra. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/oct/05/serra.art