Every so often the St. Louis Art Museum allows its patrons to walk amongst the 25 arches that make up the “Stone Sea” by Andy Goldsworthy.
These arches are made out of Missouri Limestone and are installed in a walled courtyard at the museum.
Recently I was lucky enough to be at SLAM during one of these occasions and I have to admit experiencing this installation in this method compared to the port hole view from the museum windows feels almost like a religious pilgrimage, buried in the heart of a city.
Maybe it’s the age of the stones, or the design of the Roman Architecture. Passage of time pauses while you are inside but also outside in this space.
You are granted access to behind some “staff only” doors leading to a small vestibule where you then emerge through a large metal door into a gravel filled pit with large stone arches rising out of the ground.
As if a stone serpent was undulating through the loose stones. But as you walk deeper into structure it turns into a man made slot canyon. Some stones so close only air can make it though.
And that is when you hear it. The wind blowing through the stones. An eerily whispering, almost human but not. You may think it might be echos from back the way you came, back inside the museum walls, but out here surrounded by stone.
You find yourself transported to distant lands, filled with sand and stone. Long forgotten by man, and by time. Except for the marks left by the wind moving through the stones that pass over head.
