A sculptural ramble with Richard Serra

Workers at a New Jersey trucking yard (including Jose Lopez, left) prepare sections of artist Richard Serra’s work “Band” for transport via flatbed truck to Los Angeles. The huge sections of weatherproof steel were manufactured in Germany and then shipped to New Jersey.  (Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times)

Workers in New Jersey load and secure a section of Serra’s “Band” before its trip to Los Angeles.  (Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times)

The steel sections are securely chained to flatbed trucks before their cross-country journey.  (Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times)

Sections of Richard Serra’s 183-ton steel sculpture are ready for transport from the New Jersey trucking yard. The pieces were manufactured in Germany after being designed by Serra on a computer.  (Jennifer S. Altman/For The Times)

A crane moves sections of Richard Serra’s work “Band” into position for installation in Los Angeles. The pieces had to be laid out to within 1/32nd of an inch of their predesigned locations on a grid.  (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)

Sections of Richard Serra’s “Band” await installation on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus.  (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)

John Hirx, head of objects conservation, power-washes road grime from sections of the Richard Serra sculpture after the pieces had arrived from New Jersey.  (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)

Wearing protective gear, John Hirx tries to avoid being drenched as he cleans Serra’s “Band” sculpture at LACMA.  (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)

Sections of Serra’s “Band” are rolled into the gallery to prepare for installation at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new Broad Contemporary Art Museum.  (Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times)

“What you have with ‘Band’ is a very logical floor plan,” artist Richard Serra says of his work, which introduces a wavy, ribbon-like template. “But in elevation, everything leans continuously in opposing directions, which means that as the band unfolds, nothing ever repeats itself and no volume is ever the same. So even though you walk in and out of four cavities and you have a sense that they are very similar, they are all different. You might find yourself in a space where you think you have been before, but you realize it is different and you don’t know quite why. And then you find yourself in another space, and you think it’s the outside of the space you have just been in, but it’s not. Or you think it’s the inside of the space that you just left, but it’s not. If you continuously walk the piece, what you anticipate and what your memory allows you to foresee don’t always conclude to be what you suspect.”  (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

Another perspective of Richard Serra’s “Band,” which he says differs from much of current art because “you and your experience is the content of the work. In work that is representational or in a frame, the subject matter is a depiction or literal manifestation of a person, place or event. Here, the subject matter is your experience, and it’s yours and yours alone. ... What you have is people having a private experience in a public space with other people.”  (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)