East-West/West-East (Richard Serra)

East-West/West-East stands in the Brouq Nature Reserve on the Zekreet peninsula in western Qatar, about 60 kilometres from Doha by the figure Qatar Museums gave at the launch, near the oil town of Dukhan. It is a work by the American sculptor Richard Serra, commissioned by Qatar Museums and unveiled in 2014.

Serra, known for his large works in weathering steel, had earlier made the tall sculpture 7 at the Museum of Islamic Art park in Doha. For this desert piece he chose a long, flat corridor between two gypsum plateaus, and the work follows the natural east-west line of the land.

The artwork is made of four steel plates, each more than 14 metres high, set in a straight line across about a kilometre of desert. Because the ground dips and rises, the plates are cut to different lengths so that their tops are level with each other and with the plateaus on either side, linking the two ridges. The steel has weathered to a deep orange and brown that changes colour with the light. Walking the full line from one end to the other, visitors see the plates appear and disappear as the land changes height.

The surrounding area includes rocky mushroom-shaped formations and the Film City set, a mock village built for a film, which are often visited on the same trip.

There is no entry fee or facility on site. The last stretch is on desert tracks, so a four-wheel drive is recommended. Bring water and visit in the cooler months, early morning or late afternoon.

How tall are the plates exactly? Reports at the launch gave two plates at 14.7 metres and two at 16.7 metres, each about 10 centimetres thick. The difference in height is what keeps the tops level as the ground falls and rises between the plateaus. The sculpture crosses the Brouq peninsula from one side to the other, so the line points toward the Gulf waters at both ends.

The Qatar Museums Authority, chaired by Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, unveiled the work in April 2014, alongside Serra's first solo exhibition in the Middle East. It is one of the largest public artworks in the region and has made the Brouq reserve a regular weekend trip for Doha residents.