As they say, it’s a very fine line that separates genius from madness and it seems like rapper Kanye West jump ropes with it.
However, the musician turned mogul was actually praised for one of his more recent show of support to the arts.
After a trip to Flagstaff, Arizona late last year, West reportedly donated a total of $10 million to an art installation located in the crater of a dormant volcano.
Find out why.
‘Life-Changing Experience’
West even gushed about his December trip on his Twitter account where he described the experience to be life-changing and even proclaimed that the artist’s work will be the future.
The rapper’s huge donation to the Roden Crater Project, an art installation put up by the Turrel Art Foundation, will reportedly allow the project to expand even more and actually be opened to the public in five years time.
According to the Grammy award-winning musician, he made the donation so that the project that changed his life can be experienced by other people as well. The artist behind the Roden Crater Project, James Turrell, was thrilled to hear about West’s support.
The project is set to build an on-site restaurant, a light spa, some cabins and a visitor’s center after joint partnerships from other donors aside from West.
However, it can be remembered that Turrell doesn’t mesh well with rappers as evident from his mini-feud with Canadian rapper Drake after the latter used Turrell art as inspiration for the music video of his song Hotline Bling.
What is the Roden Crater Project?
The Roden Crater Project is essentially a “light and space” art installation located in an extinct volcano in the middle of Arizona’s Painted Desert area.
It’s currently been in construction for over 40 years after Turrell envisioned the project after spending a night in the bowl of the volcano.
Ever since then, the artist decided to buy and then turn it into a sort of observatory. He started constructing his project after finally buying the crater in 1977.
He planned to turn the inside of the crater into a series of tunnels that would end up to open to the sky. This would allow the structure to capture the natural light from the sun during the day and from the moon and stars at night.
The Future
The first phase of the construction involved the shaping of the Crater Bowl and construction of the East Tunnels by moving about 1.3 million cubic yards of dirt. Six spaces have been completed as of latest.
However, the project is still looking to build 21 viewing spaces and another set of six tunnels beneath the volcano.