Yielding Stone is Orozco’s performance project in which he made a sizeable plasticine sphere—about the weight of his own body—that he then rolled through the streets of New York. The object picked up the street’s sediment and surface activity, literalizing the imprint of the environment. In this image, the ball has been marked by the grooves of the metal grating that covers the city’s underground power and sewage systems. The artist is both palpably present and absent: the stone becomes a stand-in for Orozco’s body, and the artist’s action is the origin of its movement. As Orozco has said about his interest in spheres, “I believe the idea of movement, circulation, containers, focus, concentration, pointing, all have to do with circular firms in motion and the connecting of circles and elements like individual bodies.” Invested in process and its visibility in works of art, Orozco pushes the definition of action-based works and their documentation through his sculptural and photographic works.

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As published on the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston’s website.