Two Cuts

In Two Cuts, the enormous weight of the hot rolled steel (4,626 pounds), the act of cutting, and the force of gravity "are" the work. The thinner slab falls to the ground, unable to support its own weight, while the greater thicknesses of the two standing cuts are what permits them to stand. Among several aspects of Serra's work that distinguish it from those of other, process-based practices- those of Eva Hesse and Alan Saret, for example- is its insistence on exclusively industrial materials and procedures, and its focus on the endless workings and effects of weight. "Weight is a value for me," Serra wrote in 1988, "…not that it is any more compelling than lightness, but I simply know more about weight than lightness, and therefore I have more to say about it, more to say about the balancing of weight, the diminishing of weight, the addition and subtraction of weight, the concentration of weight....I have more to say about the perpetual and meticulous adjustments of weight, more to say about the pleasure derived from the exactitude of the laws of gravity."