Dynamite Dia Discovery

Dia:Beacon is a modern art museum converted from an old biscuit factory located at Beacon, a little village located in the Hudson Valley north of New York. The train ride takes an hour and a half, and I was originally hesitant about making the 3-hour round trip from New York's Central Station. But the museum did not disappoint, unlike the New Museum at Bowery Street. The New Museum is too edgy for my liking.

The Dia:Beacon is stupendously mammoth, and its cavernous space is especially suitable for very large installations, and I mean humongously large. A few installations look like they're part of a ship's hull, and yes, the artist had to have his pieces made at a shipyard.

There are many unique works with an element of surprise and unexpected. The works of Michael Heizer, for example, are giant cuts into the grounds. His 4 pieces, called North, East, South, West, are sunk into the floor of the gallery to a depth of 20ft. He calls it 'negative sculpture'; the sculpture is defined by a void, by absence rather presence. What an original idea! According to the docent, an artist becomes famous if he is able to redefine viewpoints which nobody has thought about before.

Heizer's works is nicely contrasted against that of Fred Sandback. This artist uses nothing more than a few taut strings hung from the ceiling to the ground, but its effect is more impactful than it sounds. The taut strings, stretched as straight lines, define new planar space, as if, for example, there's a sheet of mirror in front of you. Another clever idea!

I have certainly enjoyed myself today, and have discovered new dimensions of art.