Art, damn it, art! watch (#26 in a series)

A 340-ton boulder is expected to begin its difficult trek Tuesday night from a Riverside County quarry, rolling to a stop 11 days later in a new art exhibit at LACMA.

I’m sure folks have all sorts of questions, including: how do you move a 340-ton rock? The LAT story includes a nifty interactive graphic that shows how the transport works.

During the day, the rock — expected to be shrink-wrapped for protection — will have to park in “the middle of the road, the only place big enough,” Rick Albrecht, the project’s logistics supervisor, told The Times last year.

“shrink-wrapped for protection”? Protection from what? It’s a rock!

At LACMA, the granite will be placed on its new home, resting atop a ramp-like slot in the ground through which visitors will pass, making it appear that the rock levitates above them. It will form the center of artist Michael Heizer’s enormous sculpture “Levitated Mass.”

Other questions you may be wondering about: the total cost of the project, including the rock moving, is estimated at “up to $10 million” according to the LAT.

Other questions you may not be wondering about: the rock has a Twitter feed, and is currently following 235 people. That kind of sounds like a bad horror movie, doesn’t it? “I’m being followed by a 340-ton rock that’s moving at 5 MPH.”

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