A roving work of art has sparked a lot of thought about the nature of walls this year, especially among those who live near the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.
?Walking Wall? is a 100-ton art installation that?s been blocking traffic and building friendships as it moved toward the Bloch Building at the museum.
On Wednesday, it goes inside ? and stops.
Andy Goldsworthy, a British artist famous for outdoor sculptures with rocks and wood, is the guy behind the ?Walking Wall? in Kansas City.
?It is in all sorts of ways an anti-wall,? says Goldsworthy. ?It is errant, a wall gone rogue.?
He adds, ?It doesn?t follow boundaries, borders. It crosses them. It connects things. It does everything walls normally don?t do.?
Kansas City artist Laurel Hughes has been visiting the wall each day of its construction. She likes playing with the flat stones on top. CREDIT FRANK MORRIS
Moving one rock at a time
Workers started building the first stretch of this limestone wall in March in an open, grassy lot across from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Then, they began tearing it down, back to front, and moving it stone-by-stone ? right across Rockhill Road.
?It was, and it is, inconvenient,? says Goldsworthy. ?And it?s been in the nature of this wall not to behave.?
By mid-summer, the wall hopped another stall and squiggled up to block a museum entrance, and Goldsworthy says hot, summer days are when he really got a reaction.
?And people walked across here, aiming for the air conditioning of the Nelson-Atkins,? he says, ?and there?s this wall, and the anger!?
But mostly love
Laurel Hughes, a Kansas City painter, says she visits the wall every morning.
?I love the wall. I love the energy,? she says. ?I love the whole project. I love touching the stones.?
Hughes pats the flat rocks on top. ?They all make different sounds. They all have different characters, different colors,? she says.
?Walking Wall? attracts people from all over. On Monday morning, visitors from Texas, New Jersey and Alaska milled around looking at it.
Tempe Elsberry, a former Kansas City Ballet dancer, happens by. She is dressed to the nines, carrying her infant son.
