Richard Serra "Hand Catching Lead" 1968

Richard Serra, who is a minimalist sculptor and a video artist, works mainly with his hands and metal. In his video art, he focuses on what medium he works with on a daily basis. In this particular video “Hand Catching Lead” Serra works with the obvious lead. Not only does he focus on the material he uses, he directs the viewer to his hand catching the metal. He does this repetitively for three minutes. The repetitive movement forces the viewer to think about how simple the movement is. Serra is catching something over and over again. This is a normal task and reaction that most do not think about. If something hits your hand or is being thown at you, your initial reaction is to reach out and close your hand. The body, like any other object with a function, can repeat this motion multiple times. However the human body was only meant to go so far. Serra tests his limits for how many pieces of metal he can catch in a limited amount of time. Near the end of the video, wear, tear, and exhaustion sets in and he begins to miss pieces of metal. This again, is a normal reaction. The interesting part is to see how much the hand can take, and to watch the movement it can make. Unlike an object that man created for a specific function, the human body part does something a little different every time. Also, every human is different so there is a different action and reaction for everyone.