Floor Piece (Bench) 1964

Robert Morris’s ‘Floor Piece (Bench)’ is an interesting example of how process translates into our experience of an artwork. You see this bench, or floor piece, and it just sits there, all gray and long. The color and surface is really the key here. It's like Morris is asking: what is the bare minimum that can be done? It’s one giant rectangle in space, so simple it's almost like it wants to disappear. You might think that something so minimal would be boring, but it’s not at all because of the scale, the length and the solid colour. It reminds me of some of the monochrome work by Agnes Martin, where the subtle texture and materiality becomes the whole subject. Both artists ask us to slow down, to really see, and to contemplate the relationship between the object and the space around it. There’s something kind of subversive about that, like a quiet rebellion against all the noise and clamor of the world.