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Perforations by Michael Heizer
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography
Perforations
Photo CreditCarol M. Highsmith Photography

Perforations

Artist
Year1996
Classification sculpture
Medium weathering steel
Dimensions3/8 x 15 in. (1 x 38.1 cm)
Other (concrete base): 7 1/2 x 408 x 40 in. (0.63 x 34 x 3.33 ft.)
Credits Commissioned through the Art in Architecture Program
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration
Location

  • GSA commissioned Michael Heizer to create these paired artworks titled Perforated Object and Perforations for the federal courthouse in Reno, Nevada. According to Heizer, his work was inspired by an artifact that was discovered in 1936 as part of an excavation headed by his father, anthropologist and archaeologist Robert F. Heizer.

    The original artifact, unearthed in the Humboldt Cave located 100 miles northeast of Reno, was carved from the horn of a bighorn sheep, and perforated by 90 drilled holes. The object's original purpose remains unknown. It was created over 1,500 years ago and left with the belongings of a Shoshoni shaman.

    Heizer’s Perforated Object on Virginia Street is approximately 450 times larger in size than the original artifact. The rough line of 90 steel rings displayed along Liberty Street represents the negative spaces of the perforations.