Sunday, May 22, 2011

Dean Ruck and Dan Havel: Day #3

The building was so quiet this morning. Dean and Dan were there with one watchman in attendance. It was the first time that I've been at this construction site when it's been quiet. We had the place to ourselves. Didn't even seem imperative that I wear a hard hat and really, I couldn't have done so, because Manhattan's basement office was closed. Extra hard hats locked away. All was shut down.
Dean and Dan were at work repositioning one of the largest segments of their assemblage. They'd put it up on the wall and then saw that there was some movement. So they took this giant mass of metals down from the wall and and for an hour, Dean reworked the slice of wood from which it would hang.
Took both of them to lift it back on to the wall, so I turned maneuvered the lift up and then down again while they held on to the piece of many metals.
I stayed far longer than I thought I would, because I very simply became totally involved in watching them work. And taking closer looks at the arrangement and colors and textures of all the various metals. Infinitely surprising and very beautiful.
Wish we were making a video of their installation and for that matter, videos of all the other artists at work. We've definitely missed an opportunity. Perhaps we can at least interview each artist during this month of installing.
Here are more photos of Dean and Dan at work today.