Bayyinah C. Pierre

Prof. Sacha Frey

Intro Lit/Crit Arch I

September 5th 2012.

Richard Serra and his massive sculptors.

            “If I define and sum it up within the boundary of a definition, given my intentions, that seems to be a limitation on me and an imposition on other people of how to think of the work.” said Richard Serra in his interview with Liza Bear in the 70’s. The concept of artists noting their intentions about their work has always been contrary. Should a piece of art be more abstract or straight forward? As a visual human being and artist, I agree with Richard Serra, the slot should be left blank even though the work you produced had a lot of intentions behind it. Why? When you tell someone your intentions, you automatically set limitations, boundaries that encloses into a box. You can’t think outside of it. Frank Ghery, for example, had no intentions behind his standing accessible sculptures. He just doodled, and produced outstanding architecture.  And to relate this text with the previous one, to relate Acker’s notion of the body to Serra’s on perceptual and experiential aspects subject to chance and choice. Acker picked his location and Serra picked how many reps she wanted to do for her workouts. Both emphasized the journey there, either to a foreign land, the gym or walking through a sculpture. Why do people set deadlines, limitations, expectations, and stereotypes?