Although far removed from Texas’ major cities, the small desert town of Marfa has long inspired artists, writers and creatives of all backgrounds since Donald Judd first set up studio spaces in the area in 1971, by purchasing and reconverting a series of abandoned buildings. Adding to the lore that is Marfa nowadays, Los Angeles-based artist Matt Johnson has permanently relocated his massive Sleeping Figure installation to West Texas.
Having debuted at the most recent Desert X biennial, Sleeping Figure is a 150-foot-long and 40-foot-tall installation entirely made of shipping containers that have been contorted in a balancing act to whimsically resemble reclining figures from art history. Think Rose from Titanic (1997), but made of shipping containers and sprawled out across the desert landscape.
Initially, Johnson was trying to sell the artwork but pivoted to relocating the work to Marfa as a way to preserve the piece and simultaneously add to Marfa’s sculptural history. “There’s this tight relationship to ready-made, where the boxes are passing on the track tracks, and it’s almost as if a giant child is just plucking the boxes off the railroad and stacking them into a sculpture,” said Johnson in a past interview.
Sleeping Figure will appear alongside six other totemic sculptures located by the train tracks in Marfa.
In case you missed it, we spoke with Jakob Rowlinson about his fusion of fantasy and reality for the latest Hypeart Visits.
