Installed at 817 Hillsdale Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
The former Margo Leavin Gallery
Stainless steel, steel, stucco
Blade: 6 ft x 8 in x 11 ft (1.83 x .20 x 3.51 m)
Installed 1989
Statement by the Artists
At the climax of our performance in 1985 in Venice, Italy, of Il Corso del Coltello (The Course of the Knife), a window opened above the piazza where the events were taking place and a colossal knife blade emerged, poised to slice through the building and portending, according to Basta Carambola, one of the characters in the performance, a violent earthquake caused by the fact that "Niagara Falls and the Alps have decided to spend their honeymoon in Venice!"
In 1988, the emerging blade, made of wood, was part of an exhibition of props and costumes from the performance at the Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles. The following year, the blade was remade in stainless steel and permanently sited outdoors in the act of slicing through the concrete façade of a building on a quiet, tree-lined street near the gallery, a situation which brings out the architectural potential of the sculpture.
