Surprise Attack
Richard Serra
American, 1938–2024
1973
A two-minute black-and-white video with sound in which Richard Serra isolates the simple gesture of a hand manipulating a small, angular block to investigate weight, surface, and touch.
You confront a tight, grainy close-up of a single hand holding and turning a hard, wedge-like object against a blank background, where stark light, high contrast, and the object's sharp edges make the act of handling feel intensely tactile and almost audible.
Bringing his sculptural concerns into film, Serra uses minimal action and tight framing to translate questions of mass, balance, and bodily experience into time-based form, reflecting 1970s experiments in process and dematerialization.
Medium
Video (black and white, sound)
Dimensions
2 min.
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
1343.1999
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
