Carnegie3

A consideration of Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie the Sculpture and the verbal and material by-products of said work which exist in the world as a substantial but ghostly presence. We ask the viewer to consider the idea that steel production is itself a material theme; a narrative of extraction, production and by-product, which has specific commemorative meaning. Although the form is not illustrative of the man, the material and its by-product certainly embodies the best and worst of Andrew Carnegie’s role in the world.

“The highest type of humanity… believe me is that which does most to make our earthly home a heaven.”

Andrew Carnegie, 1907

Richard Serra’s sculpture, Carnegie which is sited outside the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania is composed of four plate of weathering steel each measuring 40’ x 12’ x 2.5”. The approximate weight of the sculpture is 195,840 pounds. According to Ernest Glenn[i] of the US Steel Corporation; for every ton of steel created two tons of waste by products are also produced. By-products of steel production include: particulate matter that when it is inhaled has been linked to cancer, sulphur oxides which are a leading cause of acid rain, carbon monoxide a greenhouse gas and volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides which are instrumental in the formation of photochemical smog or ozone. In addition to these an enormous quantity of slag is produced and up until very recently simply disposed of in large piles or by filling valleys.

In looking at the total steel making process from start to finish we can calculate that in the production of Serra’s Carnegie: 998.9 pounds of particulate matter were produced, 311.2 pounds of sulpher oxides, 1432.9 pounds of carbon monoxide, 318.8 pounds of volatile organic compounds, 180.7 pounds of nitrogen oxides[ii]. The most significant material by-product is slag, resulting in approximately 388,440 pounds or 194 tons of slag with an approximate density of 78 pounds per square foot[iii]. The volume of slag created by the Carnegie sculpture would take up as much space as fifty of the steel plates used to create the sculpture. This means that waste produced in the form of slag alone is 12.5 times the volume of the original sculpture.

“I think if you are involved with the history of monuments you are involved with either depicting or illustrating a eulogized theme or a memorialized theme or a literary theme. These pieces have nothing to do with that kind of literary function, they do not intend to make someone subservient or to defer to that kind of literary or commemorative or topical, or temporal existence.

Richard Serra, 1985

Carnegie, A. (1907) A speech published in Memorial of the Celebration of the Carnegie Institute.

            Photo from Corbis-Betmann Archive reprinted in Simon, C. (1987) Community         Builders: Andrew Carnegie and his Libraries. New York: Grolier Publishing.

 Serra, R. (1985) An unpublished interview with Vicky Clark. Carnegie Museum of Art Archives. November, 1985.

Photo by Gianfranco Gorgoni, published in Krauss, R.E. (1986) Richard Serra, Sculpture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Photo of Carnegie the Sculpture published in Krauss, R.E. (1986) Richard Serra, Sculpture. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.