Muse Monday - Walter De Maria

Last summer I embarked on a road trip to New Mexico to experience Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field.  Constructed in 1977, De Maria's goal was to create an environment where landscape and nature, light and weather would wed and become an intense, physical and psychic experience.  Arriving at the DIA office in Quemado, our cars were left behind as the caretaker drove us in his mud encrusted SUV to a refurbished homesteader's cabin where we would remain for the next nineteen hours.   Although cozy with a well stocked kitchen, it was evident from the hard wooden benches and sturdy chairs that our pilgrimage was not about getting snug indoors.  Beyond the wooden windows the field beckoned.  Four hundred polished, stainless steel poles sprung from the earth like neatly planted corn stalks in a 1 mile by one kilometer grid.  Evenly spaced 220 feet apart, my steps between the posts became measured, my mind cleared, my breath slowed.  I was as enthralled by the installation as I was by the immense sky.  On the outer edge of the scape,  mountain ranges loomed haloed by cumulus crowns.  I had never known silence until this moment.  During my visit I spent inordinate hours walking in the field, observing the effect of the setting and rising sun on the steel rods.  My experience was profound, as intended.