Richard Serra created The Matter of Time, the monumental steel sculpture installation at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
The installation consists of enormous weathering-steel sculptures made from curved plates, including torqued ellipses and spirals. Serra designed the works to be experienced by walking through and around them, so the viewer’s changing position alters the apparent balance, scale, and shape of the forms.
The Matter of Time became a permanent installation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Its rust-colored surfaces are intentionally unfinished-looking: weathering steel develops a stable protective patina rather than simply representing damage or ordinary corrosion.
The installation is sometimes confused with Serra’s earlier work Snake, which was also made for the Bilbao museum. Snake is one sculpture; The Matter of Time is the larger group of related steel works installed in the museum’s gallery.