If you push this banal door, on the second floor of an old industrial building in Soho, southern district of Manhattan in New York, a surprise awaits you: 197 cubic meters of earth, for a weight of around 127 tonnes, spilled on the floor on almost 335 m². An artistic and minimalist installation, of which Smithsonian magazine recalls the origin in an article. Since 1977, The New York Earth Room Soothes, confuses and inspires visitors from around the world.
The American artist Walter of Maria (1935-2013), a figure of the Land Art, saw his work as a “Inner terrestrial sculpture”lining spaces in two German cities (Munich and Darmstadt) and Manhattan’s apartment with thick layers of earth. More than half a century after its beginnings in Europe, its New York creation has become a time capsule, frozen and yet moving, inner landscape where contemplation is queen.
His work, as stripped as it is, requires constant care. From 1989, Bill Dilworth was the silent goalkeeper. Abstract painter of Detroit installed in New York, he has devoted the last thirty-five years of his life to hydrate, rattle and watch over this plot of land, noting every day the attendance of the apartment. Among its unusual missions: to tear down some crazy mushrooms or herbs – sometimes to taste them – with a single goal in mind, to preserve the purity of the place.
A life between earth and time
Discreet character, Bill Dilworth was also the clock of the Sainte-Thérèse church clock, also located in Manhattan. His business cards could not have been better found: “The Keeper of Earth and Time” (“The guardian of the earth and time”). A few weeks before his death, on December 10, 2024, at the age of 70, Bill Dilworth had formed his replacement. Dana Avendano, 28 -year -old artist, is now responsible for watching over the 127 tonnes of earth.
Questioned in 2023 by The New Yorker magazine on his interpretation of such an artistic installation, Bill Dilworth simply replied: “It is a question of land, art and silence. We believe that nothing grows here, but still look, time grows. ” Today, The New York Earth Room There remains a strange break at the heart of city agitation, an open door to the art and memory of those who humbly maintained it alive.
