Located on the upper plaza level of the office complex, the sculpture consists of two identical parts that mirror one another. The "trench" is the circular ring at the top of one while the "tunnel" is the circular ring on the bottom of the other. The "pit" is the triangular form opened to the sky, and the "chamber" is the triangular form pointing to the sky. Diagonal "shafts" connect the trench to the chamber and the tunnel to the pit. Bruce Nauman's composition is a 1/30 scale model of one of a series of earthworks Nauman was designing at the time. Executed in an edition of three, it was first exhibited in a show at a Vancouver gallery owned by Douglas Chrismas. Chrismas later presented "Trench, Shafts, Pit, Tunnel, Chamber" at a gallery he owned in Los Angeles. After being retained as the art consultant for this office building, Chrismas sold the work for approximately $75,000 as part of the project's public art program.David Martin, the building's architect, selected the site for the work and Bruce Nauman aligned it to relate to the nearby Central Library.
The text has been provided courtesy of Michael Several, Los Angeles, July, 1998.
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