Rock Rolls Through West Adams

• 

Details

Category: Community News

Published on Saturday, 07 April 2012 16:04

Written by Robert Cronkite & Ron Hutchinson

West Adams played a small but crucial part in art history on the morning of March 10 when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 340 ton rock (technically a megalith – pay attention at the back of the class!) – made a left off Adams onto Western, heading north to Wilshire and then to the museum.

It was on the last leg of an eleven night transport from a quarry in Riverside County. It made such good time that, on assignment for The Neighborhood News, your special correspondents slept in and missed the turn only a few blocks from their house. Undaunted, they threw on some clothes, rushed out the door, met up and tracked it down to La Brea and Wilshire. They can report that although the rock looked pretty tame, the trucks moving the rock were awesome.

Heading to LACMA we witnessed its arrival at 4.30 a.m. to a rousing LA welcome from several hundred insomniacs, a line of gourmet food trucks, a man claiming to be Jesus Christ, another dressed as a white rabbit and a reveller set on getting himself arrested by shouting ‘F- the police’ every time a black-and-white came by. One detail stood out – the very last truck in the impressive collection of vehicles (maybe 30 in all) towed an Andy Gump. We made sure to note the phone number of the moving company in case anyone needs to shift an Atlas rocket or small Caribbean island any time soon.

 

Editor’s Note: Levitated Mass is the name of the installation being created by the artist Michael Heltzer. He conceived the piece in 1968 but only discovered the appropriate boulder in Riverside County decades later.  The 340 ton boulder is one of the largest megaliths to have been moved since ancient times. Once installed it will appear to  float as observers walk down a ramp around the rock.  The  installation is slated to open in the summer. For more info and pics: www.lacma.org