Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Temple #1

Temple #1 is an artwork to be situated in a remote place, ideally a desert or a large plain.

The primary element of Temple #1 will consist of an open structure created out of flat slabs of concrete. Four slabs will form the front, sides and back of the structure.

The structure will be oriented North/South so that light enters the structure primarily in the morning and evening and so that it is relatively dark in the middle of the day.

The structure will be approximately 3 meters high 4 meters long and 2 meters wide.

There will be no doors but only an opening in the 'front' concrete slab running the height of the slab  approximately two thirds of a meter wide (or roughly the width of a person's shoulders).

This opening will have a rectangular concrete pillar before it parallel with the front slab and around a meter and a half in width, placed about a meter away so as to prevent wind/sun et c. from getting into Temple #1.

There will be two slits about a third of a meter in width running the height of the two 'side' slabs located near the front quarter of those slabs so as to allow light into the front of Temple #1.

The floor, walls and ceilings of Temple #1 will remain bare, unpainted and unadorned aside from the following:

In the floor, located at midline and around a meter and a half away from the entrance there will be a rectangle cut directly out of the floor. It will be around a quarter of a meter in width, length and depth. This will be lined with black stone and filled with tan sand.

From the ceiling affixed with steel cable, at the midline of length and width, will be a very large set of five metal chimes. Thee bottom of the chimes will be aligned so that they hover no more than a third of a meter over the floor. These chimes will be immense, ideally a foot in diameter. The tong of these chimes should be weighted so that they ring occasionally, perhaps once a minute.

Leading to the primary structure of Temple #1 should be a path, either running curved up a hill, or straight along a straight path. The path should be about a meter wide, dug down and filled with fine gravel. At intervals along each side of the path should be planted upright a large oblong stone, white or grey, a meter in width and two or three meters in length.