Schunnemunk Fork, a site-specific commission, is installed across a ten-acre rolling field with a natural wooded border, which, at the time of the work’s construction, was the southernmost edge of the Storm King property. When Richard Serra chose the site, it had never before been activated by a sculptural installation. He arrived at his final composition through a complex process that involved consulting both topographical maps and a surveyor, as well as walking the grounds with his wife, Clara Weyergraf-Serra. 

The work consists of four plates of weathering steel, set lengthwise and inserted into the ground at designated intervals. Each plate is eight feet high and two-and-a-half inches thick; their lengths vary from thirty-five to almost fifty-five feet. Roughly a third of the length of each rectangular plate is visible; the remainder is buried in the earth. The heights of the plates correspond to eight-foot drops in the terrain, revealing how the landscape shifts and changes around the work. The title refers to both the four-pronged scheme of the piece and the nearby Schunnemunk Mountain.

Schunnemunk Fork does not impose the artist’s order on the natural environment but, rather, reveals the complexities and nuances of the site, drawing greater attention to the land than to the sculpture itself. The four steel plates both divide and unify the space, acting as a foil for the topographical ebb and flow and amplifying changes in the terrain underfoot. Inscribed into the land, each of the long steel plates functions as a separate horizon line or measuring stick, recalling the fifteenth-century Zen gardens that Serra first saw in Kyoto in 1970, which were designed so that elements seem to appear and disappear as one walks through them. The whole cannot be apprehended at a glance; instead, one comes to understand the arrangement over time as they experience the space. Likewise, Schunnemunk Fork can be enjoyed from a number of vantage points, perhaps most powerfully by visitors who walk to it, navigate the spatial divisions created by the steel plates, and take in the sculpture’s visual connection with Schunnemunk Mountain in the distance.

Schunnemunk Fork’s site has undergone a series of subtle modifications over the years that reflect broader landscaping developments at Storm King. Hay bales harvested by a local farmer periodically punctuate the landscape, linking the property’s agrarian past with the present. New plantings of native grasses and wildflowers add further variety to this evolving landscape. When the work was first installed, it seemed to be very far from the Museum Building, which was then Storm King’s primary focus. With time, newly developed walking paths and additional sculptures installed in adjoining areas have drawn increasing numbers of visitors to the area Serra chose for his work. Like Serra, the artists who have made site-specific commissions for Storm King have spearheaded the expansion of its footprint by seeing the artistic potential of new and occasionally unexpected locations. 

Serra initially established his reputation through site-specific urban sculptures as well as large-scale indoor structures. He is perhaps best known for sculptures composed of massive plates of weathering steel shaped into complex curves. These sculptures, made on an architectural scale, invite viewers to navigate the spaces they inhabit, which have been newly activated and transformed by these huge, imposing steel enclosures. Serra’s outdoor landscape sculptures comprise a lesser-known aspect of his work but similarly engage the viewer. Many are composed of steel plates, but others are marked by low, dense, rectangular or circular shapes of forged steel or stone. Their sites differ, as do their constituent elements, but the approach remains constant, for the subject of Serra’s landscape work is always the site itself.