Why visiting Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East in Qatari desert requires actual commitmentCathal KellyYesterday

To get to Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East, you drive west out of Doha, hit the Gulf shore close to the village of Zekreet, after which flip proper into nothingness.

“Slide proper,” says the automated Waze voice. Sliding shouldn’t be an issue, however going proper would imply heading instantly right into a ditch.

The information books let you know to return out right here in a car “with some clearance.” We’re in a four-door Kia compact. You’ll be able to really feel each rut, rock and squidgy patch of sand, and there’s nothing however these issues.

The highway isn’t a highway. There’s no highway. It’s a sequence of interconnecting tracks left by the 4x4s of staff putting in a close-by pipeline.

We cease at a few guys in reflective vests hunkered down within the shade of a pile of fabric. Our driver, Shakir, talks to them in Hindi. They level us a technique.

After we get misplaced, we flag down a pickup truck, which appears miles away. They arrive toodling proper over. Extra pipeline staff, Egyptians.

The pair pile out so that everybody can shake fingers earlier than any dialog can begin. Shakir talks to them in Arabic. They provide to guide us to the right path. With out them, we’d be on the market feeding lizards as you learn this. Assuming lizards can survive right here. What lives on this limitless doomscape?

“Are there bugs?” says Nathan, the photographer.

“Oh, undoubtedly,” says Shakir. “And cats.”

“Cats?!” says Nathan, head swivelling.

“Desert cats. Very harmful.”

You recognize what’s really harmful? Driving within the desert in a compact automotive.

Beside me within the again seat, our colleague, Neil, digs his fingers into the upholstery because the automotive begins to go sideways over an increase. You recognize how one can generally hear an individual holding their breath? I can hear that now.

“You recognize Shakir, for those who’re not comfy driving in …”

“Oh, no, no, I’m very comfy,” Shakir says. The chassis shudders and moans as if it’s being pulled aside one rivet at a time.

Who would put a bit of artwork by arguably the world’s best residing sculptor in a spot that you just can not entry with no location finder, a really critical car and a whole lot of spare time? The Qataris.

The World Cup is a trifle when in comparison with their fixation for modern artwork. To get the principle media centre, one drives by an enormous sequence of Damien Hirst sculptures. They graphically element the phases of improvement of a fetus. Why? As a result of they’re exterior a hospital.

In Canada, if individuals had sufficient cash to place a Damien Hirst exterior a hospital, they’d use it to construct one other hospital.

On the media centre, which normally homes conventions, there’s a hulking version of Louise Bourgeois’s Maman within the foyer.

There’s one exterior the Nationwide Gallery in Ottawa, too. You most likely realize it.

Right here, they’ve tucked it between a McCafé and a memento stand, the place it serves as an Instagram prop for rubes. At any time when you’re given directions to get to a information convention, they may embrace one thing like “flip proper on the spider foyer.”

Qatar’s royal household spends surprising quantities on artwork. Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the ruler’s sister, is the world’s strongest purchaser. She oversees an annual artwork funds mentioned to be within the area of US$1-billion.

The Serra is one in all Qatar’s jewels – the spot for it was recommended by the Emir – however seeing it requires dedication. There isn’t a handle. All that’s offered is a GPS co-ordinate.

Since you are Canadian, you assume it will likely be discovered on the finish of a lonely desert highway. The tip of that highway is just the start.

East-West/West-East includes 4 huge metal plates, every over 14 metres tall, sheltered on both aspect by low ridges. You’ll be able to see two of the plates as you strategy from the west, which fools you into considering you’re practically there. However that’s the purpose at which you need to determine how badly you wish to be near them. That’s the admission value.

Serra’s items are normally present in sensible locations resembling museums and airports.

That is completely impractical. It takes us 40 minutes to traverse 4 kilometres. Serra has recommended that folks would possibly stroll to the piece, which strikes me as bonkers. Proper up till the automotive is lurching over one other hidden boulder, at which level strolling looks as if a great suggestion wasted.

The impact of crawling fearfully towards these huge obelisks throughout the desolation is to provide a way of awe that’s shut to spiritual. The sculpture within the Brouq nature reserve spans a kilometre.

There’s something heavy and mythic about their placement, as if you might have stumbled into an alien touchdown website. Which I suppose you might have. This stuff don’t belong right here and neither can we. However right here we each are.

Via an middleman, I’ve requested Qatar’s head of public artwork, Abdulrahman Al-Ishaq, how greatest to strategy the piece.

“For the primary go to, I like to recommend approaching the art work by foot from the East at the very least half-hour earlier than sundown on that day,” Al-Ishaq writes.

Nice concept. I’m positive the sunshine is gorgeous at the moment. However then we’d must drive again in complete darkness and, properly, die.

After you have lastly arrived, there’s the elation of getting survived. Then the awe hits you once more while you strategy them. How did they presumably do that?

I’m not a lot for the thought of ‘experiencing’ artwork. Once I consider the masterworks, what I’m remembering is a few German vacationer elbowing me out of the best way in order that he can take {a photograph} of The Starry Night time from two ft away. What I’m experiencing is annoyance.

However you expertise the hell out of this. You stand beside one of many plates, that are turning from gray to a deep umber over time, and really feel very small in a really large world. It’s a surprisingly comforting feeling. These shall be right here lengthy after I’m gone, altering at a tempo measured geologically. I noticed them as soon as. I touched them. I used to be there.

Whereas we’re taking our footage, a high-end Mercedes truck comes bounding in from the opposite route. It’s being piloted by an Irish contractor who’s been residing in Qatar engaged on World Cup stadiums. He’s introduced his girlfriend to see this.

“I can’t consider you got here right here in a automotive,” he says.

He does us a stable and suggests a better means out than the one we took in. We return to the automotive and take a gaggle photograph with Shakir. He’s been staring up on the plates for some time, taking photographs of them on his telephone.

“What is that this?” he says at one level.

“Artwork.”

“Ah. Artwork,” says Shakir contemplatively, and takes one other lengthy look. “I’m joyful to see this.”