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Charmstone

Houston, United States of America

Charmstone

Charmstone is an oblong hanging sculpture made of modified concrete aggregate that is suspended above a dedication plaque at the entrance to the main building at the Menil Collection. A slight bulge in its center gives the pendant a propeller shape. Charmstone was installed at the Menil Collection i

n 1991. It is one of several with the same name: Charmstone 3 (1989) at Waddington Galleries in London Charmstone 4 (1990) at Akira Ikeda Gallery in Taura, Japan Charmstone (1991) at the Menil Collection (A Charmstone 2 has not been publicly documented.) The piece is one of Heizer's "object sculptures," a series inspired by prehistoric objects or tools. He described his motivation for creating "object sculptures" during their first exhibition in 1990: “They’re simply, in many ways, replicas of these things.... they’re extremely interesting in their original form, and they seem to reoccur in the modern world. I see a lot of aerodynamic shapes in the primitive tool forms, these types of shapes that were internationally used by all people in the early beginnings of mankind. For maybe thousands of years these things were used; so, I’m representing the form, but I’m looking at it again in...

Listen to the audio guide for Charmstone Free on WIP — starts by itself when you arrive, even with the screen off

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