Levitated Mass, directed by Doug Pray is a documentary that has appeal as an adventure story, exploration of the place of monumental art in America, the work of an artist with and alternative view of space and time, and it all revolves around a 900 million year old rock. Levitated Mass is the saga and implementation of an idea originally envisioned in 1968 by artist Michael Heizer.
Levitated Mass is a well-made documentary that both informs and entertains. Doug Pray’s previous documentaries include “Yelp.” “”Scratch,” “Big Rig,” and “Art & Copy” among others. Levitated Mass will keep you involved and finding answers to questions you may come up with while watching. This is a story about many things including art and how it relates to life for the artist and the audience.
The Levitated Mass adventure begins when Heizer finds a huge granite boulder, a survivor a 2005 quarry blast, that meets the vision he has had for the rock he wants to use for a monumental sculpture. Heizer contacts Michael Govan, Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) who agrees to take on the project, including moving the two and half story tall, 1.2 million pound rock to the museum site in LA County, from a quarry near Riverside, California 105 miles away. Moving something heavier than a 747 airplane over the roads and through 22 cities, each with their own laws and permitting process, is no easy task. But the journey, as seen in the documentary, engages the imaginations of thousands of people along the route. Interviews with spectators in various places along the way allows the documentary to explore how this part of the experience engages the public who now feel they are a part of this work. The “Rock” is a celebrity passing through town for all to see.
[box] “We’re living in a world that’s technological and primordial simultaneously. I guess the idea is to make art that reflects that premise.” Michael Heizer, Sculpture in Reverse 1984 [/box]
Moving the rock is only part of the story. A concrete space needs to be built for the installation to hold the rock, levitating so that people can walk under it and all around it. Through out the story Michael Heizer’s work, installations from all around the world are shown. In the process a fundamental understanding of his concepts of negative space and monumental sculpture comes across.
Levitated Mass documentary starts with a planned explosion at the quarry where the pure granite “rock” was born. When the dust settles in the private quarry near Riverside, California the rock and some back-story are introduced. Archival footage going back to a sculpture done by Heizer in 1969, in Bern, Switzerland and combined with interviews are important to the documentary in that they furnish insight into the seriousness of Heizer’s work and the philosophy behind it. His work controversial at times, too large for museum interiors; Heizer moved his work outside. He is perhaps the originator of what has come to be called “Land Art.”
A large part of the of the documentary is the preparation and actual moving of the “Rock” from the quarry near Riverside, California to the Los Angeles County Museum. A colossus transport vehicle 450 feet long is put together to hold and move the rock at a snail’s pace from city to city. Permits are required and the route must be planned so as not to destroy highways, bridges and overpasses along the way. This is a monumental journey even with modern equipment and resources. A reminder of what ancient civilizations may have faced moving non indigenous rocks to build Stonehenge or sculptures in Mexico.
Levitated Mass is an important and entertaining documentary on many levels. The pace, editing, cinematography and story bring new insights forward as well as questions about the role of art, in particular large sculpture, in the modern world. Also what will this current civilization leave behind for succeeding civilizations? What will be the modern pyramids, Stone Hedge or other edifices seen 500 or a 1000 years from now?
Review by J R Martin, Documentary Filmmaker and Author Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia
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