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Meridel Rubenstein & Ellen Zweig, Portal to Archimedes' Chamber, 1990, palladium prints, steel,…
Portal to Archimedes' Chamber
Meridel Rubenstein & Ellen Zweig, Portal to Archimedes' Chamber, 1990, palladium prints, steel,…
Meridel Rubenstein & Ellen Zweig, Portal to Archimedes' Chamber, 1990, palladium prints, steel, laser disks and players and video monitors. New Mexico Museum of Art. Purchase with funds from the Jordie M. Chilson Estate, 1997 (1997.53.1a-s) Photo by Blair Clark © Meridel Rubenstein

Portal to Archimedes' Chamber

Artist (American, born 1948)
Artist (American, born 1947)
Artist (Czechoslovakian, 1937 - 2019)
Artist (Icelandic, born 1940)
Date1990-1993
Mediumpalladium prints, steel, laser disks and players and video monitors
Dimensions111 x 236 x 50 in. (281.9 x 599.4 x 127 cm)
Each Column: 101 x 33 x 2 in. (256.5 x 83.8 x 5.1 cm)
ClassificationsInstallation
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from the Jordie M. Chilson Estate, 1997
Object number1997.53.1a-s
Description2 columns with five palladium prints in shaped steel frames with a center column consisting of 4 stacked 20" video monitors showing a 9-minute, 4 track laserdiscs on loop.
Component inventory:
1997.53.1a: Arch #1
1997.53.1b: Arch #2
1997.53.1c: Laserdisc player-LCD0
1997.53.1d: Laserdisc player-LCD2
1997.53.1e: Laserdisc player-Arch#4 (dead)
1997.53.1f: Laserdisc player-LCD4 (bad)
1997.53.1g: Laserdisc player-LCD5
1997.53.1h: Laserdisc player-Arch#1 (does not work)
1997.53.1i: Box with speakers, sub-woofer, chords and AV cables
1997.53.1j: Box with (2) synchronizers, powered supplies, cables and remotes
1997.53.1k: Laserdisc player-Mildred
1997.53.1l: Laserdisc (1 of 4)
1997.53.1m: Laserdisc (2 of 4)
1997.53.1n: Laserdisc (3 of 4)
1997.53.1o: Laserdisc (4 of 4)
1997.53.1p: TV monitor (20")
1997.53.1q: TV monitor (20")
1997.53.1r: TV monitor (20")
1997.53.1s: TV Monitor (20")
Text Entries
This piece was created as part of a large project which examined the impact of the Manhattan Project on local culture through the lens of Edith Warner, a woman who ran a tea house at the bottom of the plateau where the secret work to develop the atomic bomb was underway. Edith and her tea house served as a bridge between the people of San Ildefonso Pueblo (on whose land she lived) and the scientists (her tea house was one of the few places they were allowed to frequent outside of Los Alamos). This piece raises probing questions about the Manhattan Project through the missile-shaped photographic towers (Robert Oppenheimer, Otowi Crossing where Edith's house was, and the "race" to beat the Germans and win the war on the right; and the destructive power of the atomic bomb juxtaposed with civilization exemplified through a tea cup on the left). References to Archimedes (the ancient world's inventor of weapons of mass destruction) reveal the long history of weaponry and warfare as mothers of invention.
On View
Not on view
Untitled
Regina Vater
circa 1984
Book Series # 3
Peter Sarkisian
1996
Paint box and accessories
Fremont F. Ellis
circa 1911
Singverein
Gustave Baumann
1909
La Curacion, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Dore Gardner
1987 (printed 1997)
Untitled ( NM Petroglyphs)
Salvatore Mancini
1987
Chess Tournament
Boris Ignatovich
1935
Etna Wiswall, Fiesta Booth, circa 1935, watercolor, 17 1/2 × 15 5/8 in. On long term loan to th…
Etna Wiswall
c. 1935
Penitentes - The Crucifixion
B. J. O. Nordfeldt
n.d.