The Greater West, 2017 by Phoebe Boone

T e r r a

M o b i l i s

T h e

G r e a t e r

W e s t

B i l l

F o x

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

Section here

T h e

Robert Smithson

Section here

G r e a t e r

W e s t

Robert Smithson

Section here

T e r r a T h e

Robert Smithson

Section here

M o b i l i s :

G r e a t e r

W e s t

Content compiled and written by Bill Fox Terra Mobilis: The Greater West, 2016.

Contents

Michael Heizer, Double Negative

In association with The Palm Springs Art Muesum

Bill Fox, The Greater West

Justin Wolf, Robert Smithson, Artist:

Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf

Overview and Analysis

Robert Smithson Artist Overview and Analysis 2017.

Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

Bill Fox, The Greater West, Continued

Double Negative Michael Heizer

Mormon Mesa, NV, USA 1969 - present

Double Negative was constructed by Michael Heizer in the Nevada desert in 1969 and remains one of the few still extant examples of what are commonly referred to as earthworks, land art, or environmental sculpture. Double Negative consists of two long straight trenches, 30 feet wide and 50 feet deep, cut into the “tabletop” of Mormon Mesa, displacing 240,000 tons of desert sandstone. The cuts face each other across an indentation in the plateaus’ scalloped perimeter, forming a continuous image, a thick linear volume that bridges and combines the “negative” space between them. Double Negative was among the first “earthworks” -- artworks that use as their canvas or medium the earth itself. Michael Heizer once siad about the piece, “There is nothing there, yet it is still a sculpture.” Double Negative, Michael Heizer. Troublemakers via James Crump, 2015. Robert Smithson : 18

Micha el He i z e r

g e o g r a p h y, a r t, a n d t h e a r t i s t o b s e r v e r

Written by Bill Fox T e r r a M o b i l i s : T h e G r e at e r W e s t I n a s s o c i at i o n w i t h t h e Pa l m S p r i n g s Art Muesum

“ M u s e u m s c u r at e s t o r i e s f r o m t h e o b j e c t s t h e y o w n .” - Bill Fox

The Greater West

Smithson Moj a v e Tra i Robert l s, C a l i for nia: 3 4 .4 1 0 9 ° N, 1:1 5 .520 844° W N A S A E a r t h O bse r vat or y i m ag e s

and the Great Basin—and the western edge of the

country that is also a continent, Europe is defined

Americas in general, rich in mineral resources, which

as a continent comprised of many countries. Yet it is

in large part led the European colonial powers to

not a singular land surrounded by ocean, as are all

explore and claim the terrain west of the mountains.

the other continents. It is, in fact, the westernmost

Bill Fox

Needless to say, this caused conflicts with indigenous

region of the land mass known as Eurasia, hence its

The Greater West:

populations, a dynamic that continues today, and

designation by some geographers as Peninsula Europe.

geography, art, and the artist observer

which is true throughout the Greater West.

This lack of a clear distinction has created no end of interesting political and social discussions, which

Museums curate stories from the objects they own,

We defined this super-region as encompassing the

have several times erupted into outright war. Geology

often placing them with other objects that have never

Pacific Basin with the exclusion of Asia. It extends

and geography are inextricably linked.

been seen together so they can begin to converse

from Alaska south to Patagonia, crosses west over

with one another. The Nevada Museum of Art had long

New Zealand to Australia and New Guinea, then runs

Examine the series of five maps that are most

exhibited objects from its Sierra Nevada/Great Basin

north-northwest up again to Alaska. It extends

commonly used to show the breakup of the

regional collection as a story about the American

inland over North and South America to the great

supercontinent of Pangea, the last of the

West, but in 2012 we began to consider a broader

linked chain of mountains running from the Brooks

supercontinents, and which incorporated almost all

collecting concept based on a super-region we would

Range in Alaska to the Antarctic Peninsula. It is that

of the landmasses on Earth. The maps show Pangea

soon call the Greater West.

part of the world characterized by both the largest

breaking up from about 250 million years ago until

ocean and its seemingly innumerable islands, and

present times. They elucidate how Australia and the

We started by asking ourselves what made “Nevada”

by enormous open expanses of often arid lands. It

Antarctic drift away from one another, creating,

in our name unique. To begin with, geology—Nevada

hosts intense accumulations of natural resources,

respectively, the hottest and coldest continents,

has more mountains ranges than any other state.

numerous indigenous peoples, a history of European

and how Africa and South America become defined, as

That’s due to the tectonic plates beneath the Pacific

colonialization, and conflicts arising from the

well as Eurasia and North America. All this tectonic

Ocean subducting under the North American plate and

co-existence of those factors. Humans draw lines

wandering opens up the Atlantic Ocean, which

stretching it into a series of basin and ranges—which

around all things space and time. It’s how we create

dominates the perspective of the charts. The rim of the

also makes Nevada one of the most earthquake-prone

definitions, by saying this kind of era or place is not

Greater West is what lies on the outward edges, and

states. So we work on literally unsettled ground, or

the same as that kind of time or location.

the Pacific Ocean is mostly invisible.

the Pacific’s Rim of Fire, in particular the eastern

History is commonly understood to be somewhat

This is not unrelated to the spread of hominins—and

edge of the basin, from Alaska to Patagonia, but also

fluid in its assignments of time periods, and oddly

Homo sapiens—across the planet. Early humans began

in Australia, which moves faster than any other

enough, also with geographical distinctions. To

migrating out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago,

continent on the planet. Tectonics help make Nevada

give one example: Europe. Unlike Australia, the only

according to current estimates. Homo Erectus and

terra mobilis. That’s true of most countries around

Pacific Ocean: 8.7832° S, 124.5085° W NASA Earth Observatory images

T he Great e r We st

T h e Grea t e r We st

the Neanderthals, managed to colonize Africa, most

through the Rockies of North America to the Andes

of Europe, some of Asia, and all of Indonesiaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but

of South America and the Transantarctic Range in

failed to make it to Australia. After Pangaea broke

Antarctica. Once people crossed those mountains,

apart, Gondwana (which included what would become

they started looking more to where they were going

Australia) was cut off from Asia by a deep channel of

than where they came from, more to the west and less

water that even during the Ice Age, when sea levels

to Europe. And that shaped a culture of the endless

were almost 400 feet lower, prevented the migrations

horizon. Across the Pacific, an important historical

of species between the two landmasses. This line,

circumstance also helped to define the region. During

defined by Alfred Russell Wallace in the 1850s and now

the great age of ocean voyages conducted by the

known as the Wallace Line, basically divides monkeys

European powers during the 18th and 19th centuries,

to the north and marsupials to the south, and is one

those explorers were not welcomed into Asia, which

of the reasons that the Greater West does not include

already had well-established civilizations.

Asia. Only Homo sapiens developed the capacity to sail across the gap sometime around 50,000 years ago.

The super region is rife with artmaking from prehistoric times through the present, producing

Likewise, we couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get across Siberia and the Bering

a rich dialogue between indigenous artifacts and

Strait to enter the New World until 15,000 years

contemporary art. It is also a region where the human

ago, once again through the technology of sailing,

footprint has become very visible, hence one where

whereupon we spread down the North American coast

artists have observed, documented, and made art from

and southward clear to Tierra del Fuego. Only Homo

the anthropic changes for more than two centuries.

sapiens was able to overcome the geological barriers,

The modern cultures of the Greater West are often

the extreme environments encountered, and the

characterized as more independent and less stratified

vagaries of climate conditions opening and closing

than those of Europe and the eastern coasts of the

various routes with changing sea levels and the

Americas. The Greater West is perceived as a region of

extent of global glaciation. The Greater West was the

economic opportunity, and with pockets of exception,

last region of the planet to see habitation by humans.

real estate tends to be less expensive than on the eastern coasts. This has led to dynamic societies and a

The Greater West is bounded by the Bering Strait

hospitable social climate for artists and artmaking.

and the Wallace Line on the west, and on its east by the greatest mountain chain in the world, which stretches from the Brooks Range in Alaska south

T he Great e r We st

Robert Smithson

Section here

(Right) Robert Smithson at site of Spiral Jetty (1970), Great Salt Lake, Utah, April 1970. From Troublemakers. Photograph, Gianfranco Gorgoni. Courtesy Getty Research Institute,

R o b e r t Smit hso n

Robert Smithson Artist: Overview and Analysis Written by Justin Wolf Robert Smithson Artist: Overview and Analysis. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

(Right) Robert Smithson at site of Spiral Jetty (1970), Great Salt Lake, Utah, April 1970. From Troublemakers. Photograph, Gianfranco Gorgoni. Courtesy Getty Research Institute,

R ob e r t Smit h so n

: 27

Robert Smithson Artist: Overview and Analysis Written by Justin Wolf Robert Smithson Artist: Overview and Analysis. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors

Robert Smithson

can alternately submerge the Jetty or leave it

American, 1938–1973

completely exposed and covered in salt crystals.

Much of Smithson’s output was shaped by his

Spiral Jetty

The close communion between Spiral Jetty and

interest in the concept of entropy, the second

1970

the super-saline Great Salt Lake emphasizes the

law of thermodynamics that predicts the

entropic processes of erosion and physical

eventual exhaustion and collapse of any given

Site: Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah

disorder with which Smithson was continually

system. His interest in geology and mineralogy

Materials: Black basalt rock, salt crystals,

fascinated.

confirmed this law to him, since in rocks and

earth, water

rubble he saw evidence of how the earth slows

Dimensions: Coil 1,500 feet long and

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts works in

and cools. But the idea also informed his outlook

approximately 15 feet wide

collaboration with the Dia Art Foundation, the

on culture and civilization more generally; his

steward of the Spiral Jetty, and Great Salt Lake

famous essay Entropy and the New Monuments

The monumental earthwork Spiral Jetty (1970)

Institute at Westminster College to preserve,

(1969) draws analogies between the quarries and

was created by artist Robert Smithson and is

maintain, and advocate for this masterpiece of

the strip malls and tract housing of New Jersey,

located off Rozel Point in the north arm of Great

late twentieth-century art and acclaimed Utah

suggesting that ultimately the later will also

Salt Lake. Made of black basalt rocks and earth

landmark.

perish and return to rubble.

gathered from the site, Spiral Jetty is a 15-footwide coil that stretches more than 1,500 feet into

Smithson’s concepts of Site and Nonsite - the

the lake. Undoubtedly the most famous large-

former being a location outside the gallery, the

scale earthwork of the period, it has come to

latter being a body of objects and documentation

epitomize Land art. Its exceptional art historical

inside the gallery - were important contributions

importance and its unique beauty have drawn

to the body of ideas surrounding Land art in the

visitors and media attention from throughout

1960s. His discussion of monuments and ruins in

Utah and around the world.

his writing also helped many to think about the purpose art might have in the landscape, after

Rozel Point attracted Smithson for a number of

the demise of the tradition of commemorative

reasons, including its remote location and the

public sculpture.

reddish quality of the water in that section of the lake (an effect of algae). Using natural materials

Marcia & John Price Museum Building 410 Campus

from the site, Smithson designed Spiral Jetty to

Center Drive, Salt Lake City UT 84112-0350. Phone:

extend into the lake several inches above the

801-581-7332.

waterline. However, the earthwork is affected by seasonal fluctuations in the lake level, which

Sp i ral Je t t y, R o b e r t Smit hs o n. Im a g e r y t a ke n f ro m Tro u b le m a ke r s , v ia Ja m e s Cr u m p.

S p i ra l Je tt y, R ob e r t S mi t hson. Im a g e r y t a k e n f rom Trou bl e m a k e rs, v ia Ja m e s Cr u m p.

Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson Rozel Point, UT, USA 1970 - present

Robert Smithson’s earthwork “Spiral Jetty”, 1970 is located at Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore of Great Salt Lake in Utah. Using over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth from the site, Smithson formed a coil 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide that winds counterclockwise off the shore. Created at a time when water levels were particularly low, Spiral Jetty was submerged in 1972. Droughts caused the lake to recede in 2002, and the sculpture has remained visible ever since. “I like landscapes that suggest prehistory,” Smithson once observed. The site of Spiral Jetty was chosen by the artist for the lake’s unusual ecological and geological properties. The fractured landscape, fluctuating water levels, and the water’s salinity also speak of the artist’s preoccupation with the concept of entropy. Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson. Troublemakers via James Crump, 2015. Robert Smithson : 28

R o b e r t Smit hso n

g e o g r a p h y, a r t, a n d t h e a r t i s t o b s e r v e r

Continued.

: L a ng t r y, Te xRobert as : 2 9 .8 0 8Smithson 6 ° N, 1 0 1 .5 5 9 7 ° W N A S A E a r t h O bse r vat or y i m ag e s

Bill Fox

plane: without specific origins and where everything is

The Greater West:

always in process. Culture trickles about looking for

geography, art, and the artist observer

crevices and crannies, and often eroding the physical

Continued.

landscape in the process.

Neil Campbell proposed in his 2008 book The Rhizomatic

So, we have adopted the Greater West as a rhetorical

West that the traditional concept of the American West

transect for a super-region that has seen successive

is built upon studies of cultural roots, geographic

waves of migration across large distances for tens of

borders, and the national Jeffersonian grid that is so

thousands of years. The populations of the west coasts

visible in our arid lands. In Campbell’s terms, the New

first came into being with migrations of people from

West is much less linear, a viral idea that pops up almost

Siberia down to Patagonia, and modern movements of

simultaneously around the world--in Italian spaghetti

people throughout the region continue that longitudinal

westerns filmed in Spain, in the vaquero culture of

circulation. Our demographic evolution relies as

Argentina, and the cattle musters of Western Australia,

much or more on movement between the Southern and

among other places.

Northern hemispheres than from East to West, the latter

Campbell proposed that we change “roots” to “routes,”

having for centuries defined socioeconomic migrations

think more about border crossings and transnational

in other parts of North and South America. The modern

diasporas than settlement, and that we consider the

cultures of the east coasts along North and South

West a metaphorical crossroads “defined by complex

America tend to be much more defined by a flow from

connectivity, multidimensionality, and imagination.”

Europe, whether that was from England to New England, or Paris to Buenos Aires, a circulation pattern that bore

Campbell is taking his cue from Deluze and Guattari,

with it historically more stratified societies.

who in A Thousand Plateaus posed a rhizomatic conceptualization of cultural structures against the

The physical characteristics of the Greater West have

traditional arborescent model for understanding the

shaped the art produced around the super-region for

spread of culture. Tree-based schemes—think of a main

tens of thousands of years. Australian Aboriginal art,

trunk with spreading branches—tend to be causal,

southwestern Native American pottery, the Nazca Lines,

dualistic, hierarchical, chronological; there are root

and rock art around the Greater West all share graphic

causes, developments in time, and climax conditions

devices related to mountains and rivers, the importance

where culture is at an apex. Rhizomatic concepts of

of water, and a powerful expression of the relationship

history assume that culture is like water on a horizontal

of sky to ground, or Heaven to Earth. Almost all of the

T he Great e r We st

Pa ci f i c O cea n : 9. 6721° S , 132. 4172° W

An z a -B or reg o D e se r t , C a l i f or nia : 33 .2 5 5 9 ° N, 1 1 6 .3 7 5 0 ° W

N A S A E a r t h O bse rva t or y i m a g e s

T h e Grea t e r We st

native peoples in the Greater West worship collectively

he has been looking at how land art projects in the

under open skies, not in buildings. The mountains and

American West prefigure the abstraction of the tilt-up

high altitudes have also ensured that all of the world’s

concrete boxes in Nevada that house the largest server

largest optical telescopes have been sited in the Greater

farms and data centers in the world.

West, from Mt. Palomar to Mauna Kea to the Atacama Desert.

The abstraction of these boxes and their relationship with the landscape has a strong resonance with Land

As I stated earlier, we conceive of the Greater West as

Art present in the area—possibly partly for the same

a space of ongoing frontiers, of unending horizons––

reasons—for instance with Robert Smithson’s Spiral

and space is famously the final frontier. Artist and

Jetty (1970), Walter de Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977)

experimental geographer Trevor Paglen has been

or Michael Heizer’s City (1972-), which can be read as an

working with aerospace engineers for several years to

actual prefiguration. Their corresponding aesthetics

design and build a satellite that will be put into a low,

explore the effects of a new super scale in art—or

non-geosynchronous orbit for several weeks. Seen by

maybe they explore the realm of human artifacts beyond

the artist as an extension of Land Art, a genre whose

art. Both Land Art and boxes exploit the emptiness, the

large-scale, permanent works are scattered throughout

supply of unlimited land and absence of any opposition,

the American Southwest, the first non-military, non-

projecting symmetrically opposite abstractions – art

commercial satellite to be launched will make an

and the digital world - in which the role of humankind is

ephemeral gesture in the sky witnessed by populations

persistently probed.

across the entire super-region and the world. Finally, the more open social structure of California The architect and urban theorist Rem Koolhaas has been

and Nevada was, in retrospect, the obvious place for

thinking about the depopulation of rural locations,

Burning Man, a nomadic utopian arts festival based

places that have been taken out of production over

on radical inclusion and self-reliance to emerge and

the last few decades both by climate change and the

flourish. Where else would a recurring pop-up city of

increasing industrialization of agriculture in more

70,000 people be built than in the desert, where there’s

favorable locations. He notes that the countryside has

no objective correlative to limit your imagination.

become “an enormous canvas on which almost any form

The relationship of culture to nature, and of the built

of organization too large-scale and complex or unsafe

environment to geomorphology is paramount as we build

to blend with urban life—from immense server farms

a permanent art collection focused on how we create,

to nuclear waste dumping—takes place.” In particular,

relate to, inhabit, and care for the Greater West.

T he Great e r We st

B i g S u r, C a l i f or nia : 36. 3615° N, 121. 8563° W N A S A E a r t h O bse rva t or y i m a g e s

T h e Grea t e r We st

Smithson 36 N, 106.9156Â° W R i o Gra n d e Robert Na t i o n al Fore st , Colorad o: 3 :7 .7 9 34Â° N A S A E a r t h O bse r vat or y i m ag e s

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response and VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Defense. Caption by Adam Voiland. Instruments: Terra - MODIS Suomi NPP - VIIRS

Robert Smithson

Section here

Robert Smithson

T e r r a

M o b i l i s

T h e

G r e a t e r

W e s t

B i l l

F o x