Robert Morris’s Interactive Glass Labyrinth

 

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park, the Hall Family Foundation has supported the commission of a major work by Kansas City native and internationally renowned artist Robert Morris. His Glass Labyrinth is a brilliant, interactive addition that now occupies a prominent site in the south section of the park.

Best known as a sculptor, Morris has also been active as a painter, draftsman, print-maker, performer, choreographer, conceptual, installation and video artist, and writer. Growing up in Kansas City in the 1930s and 40s, Morris visited the Nelson-Atkins to draw and study art from many cultures.

In spirit, Glass Labyrinth acknowledges similar prehistoric markings on stones and cave walls, ancient Greek myths, and Christian metaphors for pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem. Thus, it transcends time and space to remind us of the power of deeply felt archetypes. In form and material, however, this labyrinth is a departure from the more familiar circular and rectangular labyrinths of old. Triangulated and constructed of glass plate walls capped with bronze, it speaks to this moment in the language of modern architecture and design–streamlined, dynamic, transparent, and elegant.

Now for astute viewers who may notice there’s only one path through the sculpture, it’s important to note that although labyrinths and mazes are often used interchangeably there is a difference. According to diffen.com:

Although both maze and labyrinth depict a complex and confusing series of pathways, the two are different. A maze is a complex, branching (multicursal) puzzle that includes choices of path and direction, while a labyrinth is unicursal, i.e., has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center.