Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 1, 1994                   TAG: 9402010097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

DIRTY ARTWORK BREAKS NEW GROUND

One of Manhattan's longest-running gallery exhibitions, a work of art that draws some 200 people a week, is a room full of dirt.

That's right - dirt.

Nothing else. A 3,600-square-foot room almost 2 feet deep in black soil set off by white walls and stark overhead light bulbs.

The New York Earth Room is the brainchild of artist Walter De Maria, and it essentially is a loamy Rorschach test, with visitors reading into it whatever they want, from the profound to the inane. One man serenaded it with his harmonica. Others have burst out laughing. Still others insist they see truth in its lumpy depths.

"People fill it with their own thoughts," says Bill Dilworth, who describes himself as the "keeper" of the Earth Room. " . . . Here, all preconceived ideas are blown away."

Dilworth, a 39-year-old abstract painter originally from Detroit, sits at a desk in an alcove to the side of the Earth Room where he can hear, but not see, visitors to the SoHo gallery.

A low glass barrier discourages visitors from walking in the Earth Room, but Dilworth says he sometimes finds telltale footprints indicating that more than a few have tried it.

Part of his job is keeping the Earth Room in shape with a weekly watering and raking, a project that can take up to five hours to do right. Dilworth tackles it with the elan of a consummate professional.

"To get the best [dirt] texture," he says, sounding like Julia Child enthusing about a just-discovered cooking secret, "I find if I rake it the next day [after watering] . . . "

But come on, now. Isn't this big room full of dirt just a little - not to put too fine a point on it - strange?

"It's classic New York," Dilworth says with amusement. "Where else would you find a room filled with dirt? . . . Sure, it's nutty. On the other hand, I think it would be great if there were an Earth Room in Chicago, too. It counters people's expectations."

Some visitors have told Dilworth they tossed in marijuana and other assorted seeds, but almost nothing grows - aside from the occasional blade of grass - because of the constant raking. And anything that does sprout is quickly uprooted, because, Dilworth explains, "otherwise it would become the focus."

Dilworth estimates he gets 200 visitors a week. He gets a lot of people from overseas, especially Japanese, who he says seem to feel a kinship with their own minimalist gardens. Admission is free.