Specifications: Westwal Il, 25 concrete battlements, each 1 x 1' overall, set in the garden of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, CA, 1989

Description: these abuttments are made to resemble the Westwall built by the Nazis in the Second World War--but here they face out towards Hawaii and Japan.

Westermann's work builds on the vocabulary of minimal form to construct well-hewn objects from the intersection of simple planes, be they flat, cubic, spherical, or cylindrical. Hers are tangible and immediately legible architectural forms, but unlike minimalist works, they are not concerned with the self-referential exploration of materials, scale, or internal structure. Westermann's work also differs from post-minimalist practice in its resistance to the relative contingencies of motion, light, time, or point of view. While the pieces recall indigenous architecture, they are neither models describing particular dwellings, nor houses to be built. Rather Westermann's work situates itself and actively resists these preconceived and delimited systems of architectural and sculptural discourse.

Madeleine Grynsztjen Director, Carnegie International Carnegie Museum of Art, 1989