Electron configuration: [Xe] 4f145d106s2. Atomic number: 80. Atomic mass: 200.59 u. Electrons per shell: 2,8,18,32,18,2. Melting point: -37.89°F (-38.83°C). Symbol: Hg.
Those are all properties of Mercury that I stole from Wikipedia (this will probably be the first and last time I’ll ever need to look it up. Why is chemistry even part of the core curriculum in high school?). It’s 2021. It’s understood that Mercury is highly toxic. If you had a childhood like mine, then you definitely grew up thinking it was up there on the list of things that sucked about being an adult, along with quicksand, piranhas, and MRI scans (or was MRI scans just me?); maybe you remember the thermometers being locked up in cases or using the “I can’t eat that, it’s poison” card whenever Mom told you you were having fish for dinner.
In 1937, that wasn’t the case. But regardless of everything I know about Mercury now, I would pay $3,589.43 to 1) catch a flight to Barcelona at 1:45pm today 2) arrive the next day at 12:35pm their time 3) visit the Fundacio Joan Miró and 4) catch the 6:05pm flight the same day, back to San Francisco, just to see Calder’s Mercury Fountain. Unfortunately, that’s not possible because I’ve got tickets to see a movie in theaters later tonight. That being said, earlier in May, I had the chance to see other works by Calder and Picasso at the de Young Museum. To be completely honest, I was mostly interested in Picasso because the extent of my familiarity with Calder was limited to the tacky mobile replicas in gift shops or stores like West Elm.
The Spanish Pavilion at the Exposition Internationale de Paris, July 1937.
Yet, of all the works I could have written about from my trip to the museum, I’m writing about one of Calder’s pieces, which wasn’t even in the exhibit. It was just a black and white photo and a little placard. In the photo by Hugo Paul Herdeg, Calder can be seen standing in front of Picasso’s legendary Guernica at the Exposition Internationale de Paris (funny fact: for the longest time as a kid, I thought the mural in front of American Cyclery was the authentic one). And in front of Calder can be seen what looks like any other one of his sculptures but in a fountain of water. But really, he’s standing, what looks like 2-3 feet, away from “one of the deadliest works of art.”
In the early 1900s, mercury mining was a lucrative business, and about 60% of the world’s supply came from the Spanish town of Almadén, appropriately named after the Arabic word for “the metal.” I won’t go into the 3-year history of the Spanish Civil War because I am no historian but I think it’s worth mentioning, because still very few are aware, that despite often being overlooked (a conversation I imagine happening at the Expo back in the day: “Grandma needs a break. Oh look, we can rest on the fountain in the patio!”) and overshadowed by Guernica, they share a dedication to the history of struggle against the fascists. Both were commissioned by the Republican government to raise awareness around the depravation caused by the seizure of an indispensable town and the atrocities being committed.
Though the dictatorship fell in 1975, the fountain continues to pump five tons! of pure mercury, now safely behind a pane of thick glass. And don’t fret: 1) apparently, employees who clean the exhibit are given what the security guards call, “astronaut suits” 2) as far as we know, Calder never experienced complications from exposure to the Mercury and 3) I finished this post in time to catch that 1:45pm flight to Barcelona.
Les Baigneurs/The Bathers (1956) by Picasso, shot on my film camera.
Unfortunately, the original fountain hasn’t survived so Calder donated a replica in 1977.
Ahab (1953) by Calder, based on the captain in Moby-Dick, shot on my film camera.
“The universe is real but you can’t see it. You have to imagine it.”
Am I the only one who remembers this?