richard serra punctuates qatar's desert landscape with east-west/west-east

richard serra punctuates qatar’s desert landscape with east-west/west-east
(above) image courtesy of qatar museums authority

american artist richard serra has unveiled a major commission by the qatar museums authority, ‘east-west/west-east’, a monumental sculptural installation situated in the brouq nature reserve, approximately 60 kilometers from the capital at doha. four steel plates punctuate the desert landscape, forming a close relationship to the topography of the site by crossing the peninsula of the protected park and connecting the waters of the gulf. the dark, towering beams rise to 14.7 meters and 16.7 meters above the ground, level to both each other and the gypsum plateaus on either side. despite the vast distance that the plates span — over a kilometer from one end to the other — all four metal pillars can be viewed and explored from any point within the landscape.

the towering beams stretch throughout the desert landscape

the reveal of ‘east-west/west-east‘ coincides with the artist’s first solo show in the middle east at al riwaq doha exhibition space and QMA gallery at katara. as part of the exhibition, serra has formed ‘passage of time’, a large-scale, immersive sculpture made up of two 66.5m long and 4.1m tall steel curves, snaking diagonally through the exhibition space. works from different periods of serra’s fifty year career of sculptures and drawings are also included in the show.