In 1968, after leaving New York City for the desert, Michal Heizer made nine sculptures in the dry lake beds of Nevada by removing earth from the desert floor. The works are referred to as the Nine Nevada Depressions. The ninth work in this series was a 12-inch wide trench, approximately 12 inches in depth and 120 feet long. The trench had a single loop in the center that measured 12 feet in diameter. The trench was dug in Massacre Dry Lake bed near Vya — a small ghost town in northwest Nevada. The piece required the removal of more than six tons of dirt; however, there are no traces of this piece today other than a few black and white photographs. However, this important work was the precursor to Heizer’s better known monumental work, entitled Double Negative, near Overton, Nevada. Double Negative is two opposing trenches that are 30 feet wide and 50 feet deep that are separated by a 1,200 foot long chasm on top of Mormon Mesa.
The work shown here, entitled Isolated Mass / Circumflex (#2), is a recreation of one of the Nine Nevada Depressions. The “negative” sculpture, formed by removing material rather than adding it, cuts through the lawn in front of the Menil Collection in Houston. It was installed by Heizer in 1987 and incorporates two weathered steel plates, which form a trench lined with a red quarter minus base. He positioned the work so the entry sidewalk bisected the trench, forcing visitors to walk through the sculpture. Three other recreations of the Nine Nevada Depressions were acquired by the Menils — Isolation, Dissipation and Rift. In 2018 Rift and Dissipate were relocated to a gravel courtyard designed by Heizer near the Menil Drawing Center. It was unexpected and unreal to travel halfway across the country and see recreations of works that were birthed in my back yard — work conceived in the parched desert, cutting though a lush carpet of green grass.