0:00:00.660,0:00:04.781
I'm going to tell you about why I became a sculptor,

0:00:04.781,0:00:06.836
and you may think that sculptors,

0:00:06.836,0:00:12.125
well, they deal with meta, they deal with objects,

0:00:12.125,0:00:15.083
they deal with bodies,

0:00:15.083,0:00:19.626
but I think, really, what I care about most

0:00:19.626,0:00:23.674
is making space, and that's what I've called this talk:

0:00:23.674,0:00:26.281
Making Space.

0:00:26.281,0:00:30.689
Space that exists within us,

0:00:30.689,0:00:32.758
and without us.

0:00:32.758,0:00:36.927
So, when I was a child,

0:00:36.927,0:00:38.938
I don't know how many of you grew up in the '50s,

0:00:38.938,0:00:44.350
but I was sent upstairs for an enforced rest. (Laughter)

0:00:44.350,0:00:47.697
It's a really bad idea. I mean, after lunch, you're, you know,

0:00:47.697,0:00:50.777
you're six, and you want to go and climb a tree.

0:00:50.777,0:00:52.666
But I had to go upstairs, this tiny little room

0:00:52.666,0:00:54.441
that was actually made out of an old balcony,

0:00:54.441,0:00:59.596
so it was incredibly hot, small and light,

0:00:59.596,0:01:03.011
and I had to lie there. It was ridiculous.

0:01:03.011,0:01:05.619
But anyway, for some reason, I promised myself

0:01:05.619,0:01:07.872
that I wasn't going to move,

0:01:07.872,0:01:09.809
that I was going to do this thing that Mummy

0:01:09.809,0:01:11.736
wanted me to do.

0:01:11.736,0:01:15.409
And there I was, lying there in this tiny space,

0:01:15.409,0:01:21.799
hot, dark, claustrophobic, matchbox-sized, behind my eyes,

0:01:21.799,0:01:25.864
but it was really weird, like, after this went on

0:01:25.864,0:01:32.577
for days, weeks, months, that space would get bigger

0:01:32.577,0:01:36.241
and darker and cooler

0:01:36.241,0:01:41.111
until I really looked forward to that half an hour

0:01:41.111,0:01:45.218
of enforced immobility and rest,

0:01:45.218,0:01:49.872
and I really looked forward to going to that place

0:01:49.872,0:01:52.434
of darkness.

0:01:52.434,0:01:54.890
Do you mind if we do something completely different?

0:01:54.890,0:01:56.926
Can we all just close our eyes for a minute?

0:01:56.926,0:01:58.574
Now, this isn't going to be freaky.

0:01:58.574,0:02:00.196
It isn't some cultic thing. (Laughter)

0:02:00.196,0:02:03.444
It's just, it's just, I just would like us all to go there.

0:02:03.444,0:02:05.592
So I'm going to do it too. We'll all be there together.

0:02:05.592,0:02:09.427
So close your eyes for a minute.

0:02:09.427,0:02:12.537
Here we are, in a space,

0:02:12.537,0:02:20.009
the subjective, collective space of the darkness of the body.

0:02:20.009,0:02:24.064
I think of this as the place of imagination,

0:02:24.064,0:02:27.364
of potential,

0:02:27.364,0:02:30.264
but what are its qualities?

0:02:30.264,0:02:35.561
It is objectless. There are no things in it.

0:02:35.561,0:02:41.512
It is dimensionless. It is limitless.

0:02:41.512,0:02:46.102
It is endless.

0:02:46.102,0:02:48.648
Okay, open your eyes.

0:02:48.648,0:02:52.857
That's the space that I think sculpture --

0:02:52.857,0:02:55.925
which is a bit of a paradox, sculpture that is about

0:02:55.925,0:02:59.269
making material propositions --

0:02:59.269,0:03:01.390
but I think that's the space

0:03:01.390,0:03:06.058
that sculpture can connect us with.

0:03:06.058,0:03:10.243
So, imagine we're in the middle of America.

0:03:10.243,0:03:13.115
You're asleep. You wake up,

0:03:13.115,0:03:16.462
and without lifting your head from the earth

0:03:16.462,0:03:21.900
on your sleeping bag, you can see for 70 miles.

0:03:21.900,0:03:25.151
This is a dry lake bed.

0:03:25.151,0:03:29.393
I was young. I'd just finished art school.

0:03:29.393,0:03:31.565
I wanted to do something that was working

0:03:31.565,0:03:36.717
directly with the world, directly with place.

0:03:36.717,0:03:39.780
This was a wonderful place, because it was a place

0:03:39.780,0:03:41.997
where you could imagine that you were the

0:03:41.997,0:03:44.331
first person to be there.

0:03:44.331,0:03:49.240
It was a place where nothing very much had happened.

0:03:49.240,0:03:52.485
Anyway, bear with me.

0:03:52.485,0:03:56.270
I picked up a hand-sized stone,

0:03:56.270,0:03:58.363
threw it as far as I was able,

0:03:58.363,0:04:00.434
it was about 22 meters.

0:04:00.434,0:04:06.772
I then cleared all the stones within that radius

0:04:06.772,0:04:10.574
and made a pile.

0:04:10.574,0:04:12.978
And that was the pile, by the way.

0:04:12.978,0:04:16.475
And then, I stood on the pile,

0:04:16.475,0:04:20.344
and threw all of those rocks out again,

0:04:20.344,0:04:25.562
and here is rearranged desert.

0:04:25.562,0:04:27.540
You could say, well, it doesn't look very different

0:04:27.540,0:04:29.659
from when he started.

0:04:29.659,0:04:30.862
(Laughter)

0:04:30.862,0:04:32.496
What's all the fuss about?

0:04:32.496,0:04:33.864
In fact, Chris was worried and said,

0:04:33.864,0:04:35.258
"Look, don't show them that slide,

0:04:35.258,0:04:37.217
because they're just going to think you're another one of

0:04:37.217,0:04:39.883
those crazy modern artists who doesn't do much.

0:04:39.883,0:04:42.253
(Laughter)

0:04:42.253,0:04:48.962
But the fact is, this is evidence

0:04:48.962,0:04:52.497
of a living body on other bodies,

0:04:52.497,0:04:58.336
rocks that have been the subject of geological formation,

0:04:58.336,0:05:03.350
erosion, the action of time on objects.

0:05:03.350,0:05:05.872
This is a place, in a way, that I just

0:05:05.872,0:05:09.353
would like you to, in a way, look at differently

0:05:09.353,0:05:13.024
because of this event that has happened in it,

0:05:13.024,0:05:15.079
a human event,

0:05:15.079,0:05:18.631
and in general, it just asks us to look again

0:05:18.631,0:05:21.190
at this world, so different from, in a way,

0:05:21.190,0:05:24.461
the world that we have been sharing with each other,

0:05:24.461,0:05:26.887
the technological world,

0:05:26.887,0:05:31.581
to look again at the elemental world.

0:05:31.581,0:05:37.290
The elemental world that we all live in is that space

0:05:37.290,0:05:41.678
that we all visited together, the darkness of the body.

0:05:41.678,0:05:45.343
I wanted to start again with that environment,

0:05:45.343,0:05:49.013
the environment of the intimate, subjective space

0:05:49.013,0:05:52.839
that each of us lives in, but from the other side

0:05:52.839,0:05:55.447
of appearance.

0:05:55.447,0:05:57.871
So here is a daily activity of the studio.

0:05:57.871,0:06:01.510
You can see I don't do much. I'm just standing there,

0:06:01.510,0:06:04.237
again with my eyes closed, and other people

0:06:04.237,0:06:08.764
are molding me, evidential.

0:06:08.764,0:06:12.412
This is an indexical register of a lived moment

0:06:12.412,0:06:15.595
of a body in time.

0:06:15.595,0:06:21.318
Can we map that space, using the language of neutrinos

0:06:21.318,0:06:26.104
or cosmic rays, taking the bounding condition of the body

0:06:26.104,0:06:31.579
as its limit, but in complete reversal of, in a way,

0:06:31.579,0:06:34.202
the most traditional Greek idea of pointing?

0:06:34.202,0:06:37.990
In the old days they used to take a lump of Pentelic marble

0:06:37.990,0:06:42.648
and drill from the surface in order to identify the skin,

0:06:42.648,0:06:44.100
the appearance,

0:06:44.100,0:06:47.361
what Aristotle defined as the distinction

0:06:47.361,0:06:49.384
between substance and appearance,

0:06:49.384,0:06:52.451
the thing that makes things visible,

0:06:52.451,0:06:55.506
but here we're working from the other side.

0:06:55.506,0:06:59.551
Or can we do it as an exclusive membrane?

0:06:59.551,0:07:05.509
This is a lead case made around the space

0:07:05.509,0:07:08.974
that my body occupied, but it's now void.

0:07:08.974,0:07:12.848
This is a work called "Learning To See."

0:07:12.848,0:07:19.132
It's a bit of, well, we could call it night,

0:07:19.132,0:07:23.582
we could call it the 96 percent of gravity

0:07:23.582,0:07:27.143
that we don't know about, dark matter,

0:07:27.143,0:07:30.688
placed in space, anyway, another version of a human space

0:07:30.688,0:07:33.601
in space at large, but I don't know if you can see,

0:07:33.601,0:07:39.670
the eyes are indicated, they're closed.

0:07:39.670,0:07:43.133
It's called "Learning To See" because it's about an object

0:07:43.133,0:07:47.465
that hopefully works reflexively and talks about that

0:07:47.465,0:07:51.284
vision or connection with the darkness of the body

0:07:51.284,0:07:56.257
that I see as a space of potential.

0:07:56.257,0:07:59.332
Can we do it another way, using the language

0:07:59.332,0:08:02.518
of particles around a nucleus, and talk about the body

0:08:02.518,0:08:04.448
as an energy center?

0:08:04.448,0:08:07.506
No longer about statues, no longer having to take that

0:08:07.506,0:08:10.567
duty of standing, the standing of a human body,

0:08:10.567,0:08:13.897
or the standing of a statue, release it,

0:08:13.897,0:08:18.155
allow it to be an energy field, a space in space

0:08:18.155,0:08:24.976
that talks about human life, between becoming an entropy

0:08:24.976,0:08:29.720
as a sort of concentration of attention,

0:08:29.720,0:08:34.789
a human place of possibility in space at large.

0:08:34.789,0:08:38.565
Is there another way?

0:08:38.565,0:08:44.664
Dark matter now placed against a horizon.

0:08:44.664,0:08:48.699
If minds live in bodies, if bodies live in clothes,

0:08:48.699,0:08:51.829
and then in rooms, and then in buildings,

0:08:51.829,0:08:57.531
and then in cities, do they also have a final skin,

0:08:57.531,0:09:00.164
and is that skin perceptual?

0:09:00.164,0:09:02.786
The horizon.

0:09:02.786,0:09:05.287
And is art about

0:09:05.287,0:09:11.215
trying to imagine what lies beyond the horizon?

0:09:11.231,0:09:19.852
Can we use, in a way, a body as an empty catalyst

0:09:19.852,0:09:24.603
for a kind of empathy with the experience

0:09:24.603,0:09:29.951
of space-time as it is lived, as I am standing here

0:09:29.951,0:09:35.345
in front of you trying to feel and make a connection

0:09:35.345,0:09:38.651
in this space-time that we are sharing,

0:09:38.651,0:09:42.207
can we use, at it were, the memory of a body,

0:09:42.207,0:09:45.031
of a human space in space to catalyze

0:09:45.031,0:09:48.754
an experience, again, firsthand experience,

0:09:48.754,0:09:51.761
of elemental time.

0:09:51.761,0:09:56.285
Human time, industrial time, tested against

0:09:56.285,0:09:59.281
the time of the tides, in which these memories

0:09:59.281,0:10:04.240
of a particular body, that could be any body,

0:10:04.240,0:10:09.130
multiplied as in the time of mechanical reproduction,

0:10:09.130,0:10:13.515
many times, placed over three square miles,

0:10:13.515,0:10:17.169
a mile out to sea,

0:10:17.169,0:10:21.524
disappearing, in different conditions of day and night.

0:10:21.524,0:10:24.793
You can see this work. It's on the mouth of the Mersey,

0:10:24.793,0:10:27.950
just outside Liverpool.

0:10:27.950,0:10:31.415
And there you can see what a Liverpool sea looks like

0:10:31.415,0:10:34.241
on a typical afternoon.

0:10:34.241,0:10:36.943
The pieces appear and disappear,

0:10:36.943,0:10:39.006
but maybe more importantly --

0:10:39.006,0:10:42.939
this is just looking north from the center of the installation --

0:10:42.939,0:10:47.276
they create a field, a field that involves

0:10:47.276,0:10:53.038
living and the surrogate bodies in a kind of relation,

0:10:53.038,0:10:57.999
a relation with each other and a relation with that limit,

0:10:57.999,0:11:01.745
the edge, the horizon.

0:11:01.745,0:11:04.247
Just moving on, is it possible,

0:11:04.247,0:11:08.930
taking that idea of mind, body, body-building,

0:11:08.930,0:11:12.335
to supplant the first body,

0:11:12.335,0:11:14.315
the biological body, with the second,

0:11:14.315,0:11:17.233
the body of architecture and the built environment.

0:11:17.233,0:11:21.824
This is a work called "Room for the Great Australian Desert."

0:11:21.824,0:11:23.442
It's in an undefined location

0:11:23.442,0:11:26.523
and I've never published where it is.

0:11:26.523,0:11:28.413
It's an object for the mind.

0:11:28.413,0:11:31.834
I think of it as a 21st-century Buddha.

0:11:31.834,0:11:33.764
Again, the darkness of the body,

0:11:33.764,0:11:36.827
now held within this bunker shape

0:11:36.827,0:11:40.311
of the minimum position that a body needs to occupy,

0:11:40.311,0:11:42.427
a crouching body.

0:11:42.427,0:11:45.414
There's a hole at the anus, penis level.

0:11:45.414,0:11:48.151
There are holes at ears. There are no holes at the eyes.

0:11:48.151,0:11:52.405
There's a slot for the mouth. It's two and a half inches thick,

0:11:52.405,0:11:54.744
concrete with a void interior.

0:11:54.744,0:11:58.927
Again, a site found with a completely flat

0:11:58.927,0:12:03.623
360-degree horizon.

0:12:03.623,0:12:07.947
This is just simply asking, again,

0:12:07.947,0:12:12.535
as if we had arrived for the first time,

0:12:12.535,0:12:16.671
what is the relationship of the human project

0:12:16.671,0:12:20.784
to time and space?

0:12:20.784,0:12:24.357
Taking that idiom of, as it were,

0:12:24.357,0:12:29.350
the darkness of the body transferred to architecture,

0:12:29.350,0:12:32.925
can you use architectural space not for living

0:12:32.925,0:12:34.638
but as a metaphor,

0:12:34.638,0:12:38.415
and use its systolic, diastolic

0:12:38.415,0:12:43.234
smaller and larger spaces to provide a kind of

0:12:43.234,0:12:48.906
firsthand somatic narrative for a journey through space,

0:12:48.906,0:12:52.202
light and darkness?

0:12:52.202,0:12:57.724
This is a work of some proportion and some weight

0:12:57.724,0:13:02.610
that makes the body into a city, an aggregation of cells

0:13:02.610,0:13:05.022
that are all interconnected

0:13:05.022,0:13:09.854
and that allow certain visual access

0:13:09.854,0:13:12.653
at certain places.

0:13:12.653,0:13:19.356
The last work that I just wanted to share with you

0:13:19.356,0:13:23.158
is "Blind Light," which is perhaps

0:13:23.158,0:13:26.418
the most open work,

0:13:26.418,0:13:28.553
and in a conference of radical openness,

0:13:28.553,0:13:32.561
I think maybe this is as radical as I get,

0:13:32.561,0:13:36.824
using light and water vapor as my materials.

0:13:36.824,0:13:39.210
Here is a box

0:13:39.210,0:13:42.752
filled at one and a half atmospheres of atmospheric pressure,

0:13:42.752,0:13:46.791
with a cloud and with very bright light.

0:13:46.791,0:13:50.212
As you walk towards the ever-open threshold,

0:13:50.212,0:13:58.124
you disappear, both to yourselves and to others.

0:13:58.124,0:14:00.280
If you hold your hand out in front of you,

0:14:00.280,0:14:02.134
you can't see it.

0:14:02.134,0:14:05.400
If you look down, you can't see your feet.

0:14:05.400,0:14:12.402
You are now consciousness without an object,

0:14:12.402,0:14:16.295
freed from the dimensionful

0:14:16.295,0:14:22.181
and measured way in which life links us

0:14:22.181,0:14:25.271
to the obligatory.

0:14:25.271,0:14:30.248
But this is a space that is actually filled with people,

0:14:30.248,0:14:32.218
disembodied voices,

0:14:32.218,0:14:36.332
and out of that ambient environment,

0:14:36.332,0:14:40.262
when people come close to your own body zone,

0:14:40.262,0:14:44.325
very close, they appear to you as representations.

0:14:44.325,0:14:46.545
When they appear close to the edge,

0:14:46.545,0:14:51.129
they are representations, representations in which

0:14:51.129,0:14:54.997
the viewers have become the viewed.

0:14:54.997,0:15:00.848
For me, art is not about objects of high monetary exchange.

0:15:00.848,0:15:06.253
It's about reasserting our firsthand experience

0:15:06.253,0:15:09.144
in present time.

0:15:09.144,0:15:12.585
As John Cage said,

0:15:12.585,0:15:17.672
"We are not moving towards some kind of goal.

0:15:17.672,0:15:22.353
We are at the goal, and it is changing with us.

0:15:22.353,0:15:28.789
If art has any purpose, it is to open our eyes to that fact."

0:15:28.789,0:15:30.826
Thank you very much.

0:15:30.826,0:15:34.993
(Applause)