Presence And Absence: The Two Elements Of Double Negative

Figure 1: The two elements of ‘Double Negative’ – Presence and AbsenceDouble Negative is located in the Moapa Valley on Virgin River Mesa near Overton, Nevada, USA. The materials used in the construction came from the edge of Virgin River Mesa. About 240,000 tons of sandstone and rhyolite in weight were excavated by a team of workers using cranes, bulldozers, excavators and backhoes. All the workers are the local residents of nearby towns in Overton. The construction site was far from the location of small towns and population. The construction site – desert provided a good geographical area for Michael Heizer to create a land art with large landscape volume and scale. ‘It is a space without architecture as background that allows spectators

Sandstone is formed by sand decomposition and difficult to be weathered due to the presence of quartz. On the other hand, rhyolite is a kind of volcanic rock which exhibits tough properties. Both these two materials exhibit a similar structural characteristic – rigidity. The toughness of materials enables the construction of the two big trenches with spacing between. This helps to catch visitors’ attention to the huge landscape volume and scale of the artwork. The second reason for choosing these two materials is their origin. All the materials used in the construction of ‘Double Negative’ came from the natural environment, the edge of Virgin River Mesa. This linked to the opinion suggested by Michael Heizer that ‘Earth is a material with the most potential because it is the original source

The ‘Double Negative’ gives an image on how the material extraction from environment is done these days. The two trenches reveal the mass of land surface needs to be removed in order to reach the useful materials underneath. The land art aims to address the visitors with the consequences on the manipulation of ground for catering our own needs. On another perspective, it is the problem on the addition of construction upon the ground surface. This leads to reconsideration of the practices we are carrying nowadays. (773 words)

References:
Tiberghien, G. (1995). “Inorganic Sculpture”, Chapter 2 in Land Art. Princeton Architectural Press, pp.61-83
The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies pp.572-575 https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=soqnmu9-rnMC&pg=PA572&lpg=PA572&dq=Michael+Heizer+Double+negative+material&source=bl&ots=r1ETmlHXxM&sig=qcqNNfMcYy6_VtfPJHbOEbf2F-M&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCmoVChMI7Jy2g6GZyAIV4-GmCh2UIAG1#v=onepage&q=Michael%20Heizer%20Double%20negative%20material&f=false Sculpture entrenched in earth Las Vegas Sun News