Robert Barry, Inert Gas Series: Krypton, from a measured volume to indefinite expansion. On March 3, 1969 in Beverly Hills California one liter of Krypton was returned to the atmosphere.
The Inert Gas pieces were an attempt to use material - inert gas - which is an undetectable material, you can’t smell it or see it, and use this material to create a kind of large environmental sculpture, if you will. It was one of the last works that I did in ‘69, where I actually used physical material. And so it was a kind of transitional work, in that I was still using material, even though one’s understanding of the work and appreciation really had to be totally mental. One would have to use one’s imagination. I used inert gas - neon, helium, xenon, krypton - because they were, first of all, called the änoble gasesô. I always thought they were sort of romantic. They were completely unknown about 100 years ago, we didn’t know they existed, and yet we breathe them in and exhale them, we live around them and move in these inert gases. They have very beautiful names, like änewô, ähiddenô - their names in Greek are quite nice. So, I just kind of liked that as a material. And we take it from the atmosphere - we can’t manufacture them - they’re in the atmosphere, so they must be removed from the atmosphere. They’re used in industry, they’re used for certain kinds of lighting. If an electrical charge is put into neon, for instance, it creates a certain kind of light, which is what they’re used for primarily, but there are other uses for them. So it was a very interesting material for me to work with and I felt that this was something that I could deal with and fit into what I was trying to do at the time.
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
