An essential part of Walter De Maria’s “The Broken Kilometer” installation in the Dia Art Foundation in Manhattan is a certain quality of light which illuminates the brass rods. According to an article by Mary A.V. Chaban in the April 30, 2019 issue of The Wall Street Journal (“
Dia Needs Bright Ideas for Lighting Fix”), the bulbs chosen in 1979 to produce this light must be changed every three years in order to maintain it and are no longer available in the United States. In 2022, Dia will modernize that space. Perhaps by then it will have found a contemporary replacement for the metal halide light bulbs. In the meantime, a cache of bulbs has been located in Slovenia.
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