Marfa’s Latest Art Attraction Is a Precarious-Looking Installation Made of Repurposed Shipping Containers

The arts destination that is Marfa in West Texas is about to get one more attraction: a new permanent, outdoor sculpture that will likely become a destination of its own. Having recently arrived from the Coachella Valley, where it debuted earlier this year as part of the Desert X biennial, to the Chihuahuan Desert, Matt Johnson’s Sleeping Figure (2023) will be permanently sited onfive-acre site near Marfa, beginning this September and open 365 days a year.

In a town that is no stranger to massive artworks—from those on view at the Chinati Foundation, founded by Donald Judd (whose Texas home and studio are also a draw), to Prada Marfa (2005), the roadside faux storefront, constructed by artistic team Elmgreen & Dragset, about 26 miles northwest of Marfa—Sleeping Figure is a colossal balancing act made of 12 decommissioned shipping containers that vaguely resembles a recumbent body.

Johnson, who is based in Los Angeles, will donate Sleeping Figure to Marfa Invitational/Foundation, a cultural nonprofit founded by curator Michael Phelan that also runs an intimate art fair of the same name. The work was among Desert X’s most popular commissions, “drawing thousands” over its two-month run, according to Desert X; Phelan approached Johnson after witnessing its mass appeal.

“You could see it from the highway,” Johnson told ARTnews in an interview, “and it was something that people enjoyed taking pictures with and would climb on.”

The 150 foot long, 40-foot-tall assemblage took nearly two years to complete, as well as some $200,000 to fabricate. (Desert X raised the funds for the work, but Johnson retained ownership of it as part of the commissioning process.)

“To be honest, I was hoping to sell the sculpture,” Johnson, who has not yet visited the sculpture’s new home, continued. “When I realized that probably wasn’t going to happen, I started to think about other options for keeping the sculpture alive because it was going to be disassembled and basically sold for scrap metal and materials.”   

Johnson said this quasi-readymade references reclining figures throughout art history, most specifically giant parinirvana Buddhas in Southeast Asia at their last earthly moments before death, as well as the global supply chain crisis that resulted from the pandemic and the Ever Given container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal in 2021.

In its new context, Johnson sees a resonance to Judd’s specific objects, including one of Marfa’s main attractions, 100 untitled works in mill aluminum (1982–86). In both the Coachella Valley and Marfa locations, Sleeping Figure is adjacent to active freight train tracks.

“There’s this tight relationship to ready-made, where the boxes are passing on the track tracks, and it’s almost as if a giant child is just plucking the boxes off the railroad and stacking them into a sculpture,” he said.

Phelan hopes to create a sculpture park at this site just outside Marfa, with Sleeping Figure being the latest work to join the six that have already been installed, including a large-scale mesh sculpture by London-based artist Rana Begum.

“I think it’s paramount to be able to continue this legacy of Land art and bring it into the 21st century,” Phelan said. “There’s an incredible dialogue with the landscape.”