Transport, Night 1: The Making of Levitated Mass

On February 28th, 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art began transport of a 340-ton granite megalith from a quarry in Riverside County to the museum's campus for the making of Levitated Mass, a sculpture by artist Michael Heizer. The eventual work wlll be composed of a 456-foot-long slot over which the megalith will be suspended. Heizer conceived of the artwork in 1968, but discovered an appropriate boulder only decades later, in Riverside County, California. At 340 tons, the boulder is one of the largest megaliths moved since ancient times. Transport, made possible by Hanjin Shipping, takes place over the course of roughly eleven nights, traveling through four counties (Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles) and twenty-two cities. The transporter carrying the boulder, specially designed for maximum safety, is traveling a predetermined route with movement happening only at night.

For more information, visit lacma.org/levitatedmass.

Follow on Twitter @LACMA #LevitatedMass for live updates.

Video by Alexa Oona Schulz.

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[lacmavideo]

@ThePrimeSpotcom: Levitated Mass and its transport is generously and entirely paid for by private donors. See you in Bixby Knolls tomorrow!

[lacmavideo]

@debroq: I believe the boulder is wrapped in plastic to protect it from friction from the apparatus stabilizing it during transport, and from staining as it makes its way across Los Angeles.

[uglytoytruck]

Fuck the rock.. the transport should be in a museum

[savvysearch]

This is the largest object ever moved since the time of the pyramids. The project is more than a rock!

[ArtHistoryChannel]

Check out what L.A. residents have to say about the Rock on my Art History Channel, I just uploaded a 3 mins video. One guy feels like he is walking into a Magritte painting, one guy feels the weight pushing down on him, one guy won't walk under it and another is dressed up as Jesus Christ and just can't get enough.

[AndrewTheArchitect]

Looks to me like there's a lot of men in high-viz jackets being kept in a job.

[TheJimDandy1]

Blow me.

[bluntedtaoism]

if the sight of that thing doesn't make the back of your throat numb you haven't been in LA long enough

[Domenico D.]

Youtube watch :

watch?v=wDh_QEYoFTE

& click on link in description!

[theLonesoldier18]

10 million + dollars

[theLonesoldier18]

10 million dollars to move rock what a wast of money , i fell sorry for the victims of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami there homeless there luckly to get one meal a day but rather spend it on a rock the you, sorry. so sad so sad in did :(

[angelheaded]

people are out of work, no health care, etc and how much did it cost to move this rock? is that what art is? utterly unethical waste?