ROBERTSMITHSON LandReclamation and the Sublime

THOMASDREHER

LAND RECLAMATION many states,only superficialmeasures are required. In some cases,the finesfor neglectare lessexpensive than For the group exhibitionof contemporary art Sonsbeek the measuresthemselves.3 '71 in the Dutch city of Arnhem, Robert Smithsonrealized Beginningin 1972,Smithson attempted to win American Broken Circle and Spiral Hill in an inactive sand-pit in firms for Land Reclamation projects. Of Smithson's Emmen.On a conicalmound, a spiralpath runs counter- projects being plannedjust before his accidentaldeath,a clockwise. At the top of the Spiral Hill is an observation TailingPond in Creede, Colorado had the greatest chances platform, from which the best view of Broken Circle, for becomingrealized. The TailingPond containsresidues, located on the edge of the flooded gravel pit, underneath which are produced as a result of the erosion of metal an embankment,is possible.Two circularsegments - a ore. Over a periodof 25 years,nine milliontons were to - 'dam dam and a canal are laidout aroundan innercircle, be conductedto the terracing.A circular tapering which is divided into two segmentsof water and earth. into road' with a diameter of 2000 feet (50.8 meters) was That which is water in the one half, is earth in the other to be directed around the terraces,with their concave half. ln Broken Circle, two semicirclescorrespond to one downward leadingcurves. In addition, a street was 'graded another formally and are simultaneouslyopposed in terms planned,which was to bisectthis circleand the of material,Somewhat removed from the center of the basin'around it.s circle liesa large boulder. The rock is one of the largestof The KennecottCopper Corporation declinedits support. 'Bingham its kind in Holland. lt was carried here duringthe lce Age For their enormous Mine' rn Utah, with its three by a glacierwhich ran diagonallyacross present-day mile wide hole, Smithsonhad suggesteda circularlake.6 Holland.The materializedpresence of a center disturbed Four dams comprisedof circularsegments were to lead Smithson.The expenseto remove the erratic block, into a center consistingonly of water. With this liquid however, was too great. Finally,he thought: lt becamea center between curved dams, the miningterraces would dark spot of exasperation, a geological gangrene on the have appearedas the outer ringsof an inwardly(counter- 'heart sandy expanse...akind of glacial of darkness' - a clockwise)or outwardly (clockwise)rotating whirlpool. warning from the lce Age.l Smithson'sproposals for Land Reclamationprojects of The centripetal,upward windingspiral path and the miningpits formed as a result of inexpensivesurface mining 2 centrifugalBroken Circle with its dam and canal, made more expensiverestoration, such as refilling,for complementeach other as much as they neutralizeeach example, unnecessary.Combines active in the miningof other. raw materialsnevertheless preferred to transform the The sand-pitwas alreadyintended as a recreationarea devastatedland into recreationaiareas; they could then when Smithsonchose the site. In reactionto the local advertisewith this that they would be leavingthe land in a population'sacceptance of the project, Smithson's much better conditionthan it ever had before.TSmithson, contributionto the exhibitionwas maintaineoas a on the other hand, plannedpark-like monuments, in which permanent installation. the lossof non-regenerativeresources would not be The government of the US State of Ohio resolvedin April hushedup. 'King 1972that owners of abandonedmining pits must adopt The County Arts Commissionof Seattle'organized precautionarymeasures since, with high miningwalls, Earthworks: Land Reclamationas Sculpture with seven poisonousacids are formed as a result of the combiningof artistsin 1979.For this exhibition,Robert Morris realizeda carbon and air. These acidscontribute to the hot-house project within a defunct coal mine on the edge of Kent effect. Sincethen, in Ohio, the gradient of abandoned Valley.Except for the largesttrees, Morris had all miningpits must not exceed35". In 1977,President vegetationremoved. The remainingtrees were cut to a Carter signedthe Surface Mining Control and Reclamation heightof approximately6 feet (l.B meters) and painted Act, which specifiesthat revenuefrom operatingcoal blackwith creosote,The miningpit was divjded into six mines be chargeda supplementarytax and that the descendingterraces and plantedwith clover.sThe green, individualfederal statesbe responsiblefor the regulationof terraced mine becamea memorialto the exploitationof these measures.The money collectedfrom this nature. supplementarytax is accruedto the Department of the In terms of his Earth Art projects,Michael Heizer, unlike 'department' lnterior's Office of Surface Mining. This Morris, was interestedsolely in artisticaspects, even when 'Abandoned distributesthe money to the Mined Lands working in abandoned mines: I don't support reclamation- ReclamationCouncils' (AMLR) of the federal states.ln art sculpture projects.9 26 !'

1:

Robert SMITHSON Eroken Circle, l97l-72and SpiralHill, l97l (Emmen,Holland) CourtesyJohn Weber Gallery,New York

Morris' projectsand especiallyHeizer's project Effigy THESUBLIME AND THE PICTURESQUE Tumulion the BuffaloRock Mesa (1983-85) throw light upon the financingof Land Reclamationin Americaafter In his last article,Frederick Law Olmstedand the Carter'ssigning of the 1977Act. The Foundationof the DialecticalLandscape,l3 Smithson establishes a relationship Ottawa SilicaCompany, which owned the former coal both to aestheticdiscourse by meansof the sublimeas minesalong the lllinois'River,selected and paidthe artist. well asto the traditionof the picturesque.Smithson 'Central Furthermore,they donatedthe landto the Stateof lllinois, analyzesNew York's Park'(Manhattan, lB5B- 'Buffalo whichintegrated it into the RockState Park'.r0 On 1874),which was laidout by Olmstedand CalvertVaux 'man-made the landdecontaminated by AMLR,Heizer formed five over a wasteland'rain the faceof strong formsrecalling regional animals from wallsof earthwith oppositionon the part of speculators.Smithson refers to 'diffracted linearedges. The gestalt'rI of the largeearth the - for Olmstedparadigmatic - treatiseson the wallscan only be seeniryldfView from an aircraft.Earlier, picturesqueby the EnglrshmanWilliam Gilpin (1724-1804) the lndiansof the northernpart of lllinoishad also built and Sir UvedalePrice (1747-1829). Following Edmund suchwalls of earthrepresenting animal forms ('effigy Burke's(17291797) definitions of the conceptsof the tumuli'):Heizer was not makingreferences to ecology,but beautifuland the sublimers, Giloin and Pricesituate the ratherto history. picturesquebetween these two poles.According to Gilpin, Smithsonbecame for Morrisa stimulusfor ecologically the strongimpression of the sublime,aroused by simple basedoutdoor art, whichwould hinderfurther damage ideas,is weakenedin picturesquerepresentations of causedby the nonregenerativeexploitation of nature.l2 landscapesby varietythrough narrative elements, such as This ecological,contextual art transformsthe devastated ruins,cottages, people, etc.r6 landinto public,grass covered open spaces,without Smithsondid not placehis Earthworks in picturesque, concealingthe consequencesof the devastation. diversifiedlandscapes, but ratherin uniformand vacant 'scenes Interventionis reducedto the ecologicallynecessary, with ones,preferably in of desolation'.17Furthermore, accentsalso referring to the exploitationof nature. in the Land Reclamationsmentioned above, he did not WhereasSmithson was interestedin both ecologicaland work with the varietyof the picturesque,which provokes aestheticquestions of landscapearchitecture and planning, attention,but ratherwith uniformity.Burke had described Morrislimited himself to exploringthe differencebetween the successionand uniformity of parts as artificialinfinite in economyand ecology.Heizer's Effigy Tumuli, on the other the senseof the sublime:/. Succession;which is requisite hand,withdraws from ecologicalconflicts in a history that the parts may be continuedso long, and in such a orientedoark situation. direction, as by their frequent impulseson the senseto 77 Robert SIYITHSON /s/andProject, 1970 Pencilon paper 48 x 6l cm Courtesylohn Weber Gallery,New York

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impressthe imaginationwith an idea of their progress CENTERAND PERIPHERY beyondtheir actuallimrts. 2. Uniformity; becauseif the figuresof the parts should be In two of his numerousarticles, Robert Smithsonquoies changed,the imaginationat every changefinds a check, the followingsentence by BlaisePascal (1673 1662):Nature you are presentedat every alterationwith the termination is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and of one idea,and the begrnningof another;by which means whose circumferenceis nowhere.22 it becomesimpossible to continuethat uninterrupted The JansenistPascal rejected casuistryand 'metaphysical .Jesuit progression,which alonecan stampon boundedobjects proof for the existenceof God', For the characterof infinity.rs Smithson,Pascal's search for meaningbetween intuition and philosophicalcognition, between unconditional faith Smithson'sSpiral Jetty,)e Spiral Hill and drawingsof spiral and rationalskepticism, became a stimulant.Pascal wrote: Earth Art projectscan be analyzedin terms of Burke's Car, enfin, qu'est-ce que I'homme dans 'uniformity' 'succession'. la nature? Un criteriaof and And Gilpin's nöant ä l'ögard de l'rnfinr,un tout ä l'ögard du nöant, un . 'simplicity,''continuation' 'extension' criteriaof and explain milieu entre rien et tout. lnfiniment öloignö de comprendre Smithson'sspiral Earthworks, whereas William Lock's les extrömes; la fin des choseset leurs principes sont pour 'repetition','formality' 'regularity' criteriaof and applyto lui invinciblementcachös dans un secret impönötrabte...Ce minimalistsculptures by DonaldJudd, Sol LeWitt, Robert milieu qui nous est öchu en partage ötant toujours distant Morris and Smithson(196a 6Q, which consistof seriesof des extrömes, qu'importe qu'un homme ait un peu plus regularor regularlyvarying, massive units and/or intervals. d'intelligencedes choses?S'il en a, il les prend un peu de Gilprnwrites in a letter to Lock written on September29, plus haut, n'est-il pas toujours, infiniment öloignö du bout, l7B2: Now if this be just, there must be a conttnuatton- et la duröe de notre vie ne l'est-elle pas ögalement not a repetitron, of the same idea...the continuation of one infiniment de l'öternitö, pour durer dix ans davantage7.z3 'eternity' 'infinity' large object, ranging uninterruptedly, & uniformty, through Smrthsonsecularized Pascal's and into 'geologic a vast space. Simplicity is the principal source of sublimity, time',2ain the face of which the time of (human as variety is of beauty.za and) art history become relativized:When one scansthe In the immediatelyevident complementarity of the circular ruined sitesof prehistory one sees a heap of wrecked segmentof the Broken Circle in Emmen, the double maps that upsets our present art historical limits..,There interruptionof the circleappears as in a total correlation are...no traces of an end or a beginning.)s ('continuation','uniformity')of regularintervals The potentiallyrandomly inwardlyand outwardly ('succession'),not as djvislonfor the sakeof variety. expandablespiral which can be enteredby the viewer Smithson'soeuvre encompasses the sublimeand the representsa standpointthat is alwaysdistant from 'nothingness' 'the picturesque:the great gesturein grand,simple, expansive and inftnite':beginning and end are and raw nature, next to the picturescuein fantastic absent,only a distancebetween these is present. drawingsfrom 1970with the title EntroprcLandscape and lsland Projecf. ln project drawings such as Floating lstand; From Smithson,there are two interpretationsof the To Travel around Manhattan lsland from 1970 and relationshipof centerand peripherymentioned by Pascal: Meandering lsland (Little Fort lsland, Main-e)from 197l, a.) Center and peripheryare opposrJes,both of which picturesqueEarthworks are proposed.Tl refer to the other: You then have a dialecticbetween the 28 point and the edge:...akind of Pascaliancalculus between the edge and the middle or the fringe and the center.26 b.) The center is absentand still or no longer negatively definable by the periphery: The finite present of the center annihilitates itself in the presence of the infinite fringes.2T ln two projects,Smithson addresses the relatronsbetween center and periphery particularlyclearly in the senseof a.) and b.). ln regards to a.): In Texas Overflow, accordingto Smithson'sdrawings from I 970,28a round elevationof Iight limestone(or bright yellow sulfuricstones) and earth was to be constructedin a semicircular,abandoned mining pit. Into this elevation,asphalt was to be pumped: a closed circle of tar was to open itselfup while streamingpast towering limestoneinto the pit. ln regardsto b.): ln 1969,Smithson had asphaltpoured down the embankmentof a garbagedump in Rome (Cava di Selce).2eThe black massran alongthe channelsof the eroded hillside.ln Asphalt Rundown, as in Iexas Overflow, a continuous,informally extensive surface was created. A primary form as the central startingpoint of the extension,however, was lacking.In one drawing,the rectangularloading areas of four trucks are the source of an entropy of 1000 tons of Asphalt.30The dried asphalt was the trace of an action, which referred to an absent Robert SMITHSON Äsphalt Rundown, li969 (Roma, ltaly) source, an absentcenter. The hardenedtar surfaceswere Courtesy Estateof R.S. and JohnWeber Gallery, New York exposed to future soil erosion,to which they - in the whole: what would still need to be explained,if it is contrast to their original,hot fluid state - were no longer questionablewhether there is indeed anythingto explainat able to adapt. Asphalt Rundown, as long as it did not fall 'in all?Smithson termed the sphere of being not inferable into ruin, was a state of arrested disruption'.31 'dimension from consciousnessthe of the absence'S3s - The Earthworks Asphalt Rundown and Texas Overflow the absolutelyunfathomable, the center of being closedto are narrativeand therefore picturesque,because they can be read as traces of actions,which proceededfrom a CONSCIOUSNCSS. In the sublime,the narrative- the picturesque- is center to a periphery.Smithson's sublime Earthworks abstainedfrom as far as oossibleto be able to concentrate abandonthis readability.With the complementarityof 'the 'self on the border between and the non-self'36: the direction and counter-directionin the simultaneously simple,continuous form as cipherin simple,extensive progressiveand regressivespirals and the reversely landscapeformations confronts the viewer-selfwith symmetric analogy in Broken CircleL , traces of an action- somethingforeign, which possessestoo little to stimulate time are negated. Asphalt Rundown and lexas Overflow, the fantasy.The form appearsdetached from its origin: unlikethe sublimeEarthworks, cannot be entered, but the formal continuityof a spiraldoes not appear conclustve only viewed and are, therefore, as a result of their to the recipient - as with Texas Overflow and Asphalt pictorialnature, picturesque. Rundown - only after the reconstructionof its processes of realization.ln walkingalong the dams, the recipientsare given time to fill the void with their own projections- or they simplytake note of the beingof the work in a ABSENCE 'walking time', whrch is exempt from goal directed haste. 'simplicity','continuation' With its propertiesof and The sublimerepresents, according to lmmanuelKant 'extension', the sublimeEarthwork caststhe receiving-self (17741804),the expressionof a differencebetween the back onto itself. subjectof representation(an idea or a perception)and representation:if - saysKant - the subjectcannot be adequatelyrepresented in sensualmedia, then the 'objective inadequacyof the power of imagination'should THEPRESERVATION VERSUS THE DOMINATION be expressed Erhaben ist, was auch nur denken zu OF NATURE können ein Vermögen des Gemüts beweiset, das jeden Mastab der Sinneübertrifft.32 In Heizer's Earthworks,which are pictorialand, at the Lyotard usesthe sublimeto confront the same time, sculpturallybreak the pictorial,natural and Jean-Frangois'philosophical discourseof modernity'31inaugurated by artificialmaterials are subjugatedto a technicaldomination Kant and Hegel with a questionthat is not inferablefrom organizedaccording to artisticpoints of view. This is true consciousness:I Why does somethinghappen rather than not only for Effigy Tumuli, but also for geometric works nothing?3a such as Complex One/City (197276)37of compressed Kant's specialsphere of the sublimeis transformedby earth, concrete and steel in the Nevada Desert. Heizer Lyotard into an inquiry into the adequacyof rationalityon provokes the viewer to reconstructhis self-contained 29 B. The Drawingsof RobertMorrr. ExhibitionCatalogue. Williams Colege Museum of Art, Williamstown,Massachusetts 1982, unpagnated; J. BEARDSLEY, Earthworksand Beyond...,New York 1985,pp. 90-95 9. lY.H.in: D.BOURDON,Working with Earth...,in: Smithsonian,No. 17,April 1986,p.74. 10.D. McGlLL,M. HEIZER:Effigy Tumul, New York t990,pp. t6,7t,35, it, 40 (lY.H. receivedan additional$ 25,000from the nNationalEndowment for the Arts)) I l. lYcGlLL,p. 43 12, ln: J. BEARDSLEY,R.5. and the DialecticalLandscape, in: Arts Magazine,yay 1978,p. 134 I, BEARDSLEY,Earthworks and Beyond...,New York 1985,pp. 89ff. HarveyFite is mentonedhere as a forerunner,whose modiflcation of an abandonedcupric sulphate pit from 1939to 1976did not, however,result from ecologicalnecessity. For anotherecologically oriented project, which sought to protectthe environmentfrom further destructionsee: H. STACHELHAUS,/oseph Beuys,Düsseldorf 1987, p. l8l 13.R.S., pp. | 17,128 14.R.S., p. I I7 15.E. BURKE,n: J.T. BOULTON (ed.),A Philosophicattnquiry into the Originof our ldeasof the Sublimeand Beautiful,London 1958 16.P. BARBIER,William GlLPlN..., Oxford 1963,pp. 98-t2l 17.W. GlLPlN,Dialogues on VariousSublects, London 1807,pp. 393-397; Robert SIYITHSON One of the Nrne drawingsfor TexasOverflow, 1970 BARBIER,p, 109 Drawing 30 x 45 cm CourtesyJohn Weber Gallery, New York 18.BURKE, p. 74 19.HOBBS, pp. 191-t97;R.S., pp. 109I l6 20. BARBIER,p. 129 monuments,whereas Smithson, with his contextualized, 71. R.S.:Drawings. Exhibition Catalogue, The New York CulturalCenter, New water permeated,spiral works, offers passagesbetween York 1974,pp. )4,37,74: R.S.19381973: Zeichnungen. Exhibition Catatogue. GalerieRolf Ricke,Cologne 1980, unpaginated; R.S,: Drawings from the Estate. nothingnessand infinity.With Smithson'sSpiral or 'in' Jetty ExhibitionCatalogue. Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster 1989, p. 135;E. Broken Ctrcle,the viewer is the work; with Heizer, on ISAI, Unearthed:Drawings, Collages, Writings, New York 1991,p. 184 Hobbs placed the otherhand, he is'in frontof'or'on'it: betweenthe and Beardsley Smithson'sEarthworks in the traditionof the picturesque,whereby the latter regardsthe landscapeschosen by Smithsonas representative form of the Tumuli and the possibilitiesof sublme (. BEARDSLEY,Traditional Aspects of New LandArt, in: Art lournal, Fall walkingon them, existsat best a distancedcorrelation in 1982,pp, 227,)31; HOBBS,p. 29).Adcock, Kuspit and Sayre connected Smithson'sEarth Art to the sublime(C. contrastto Smithson'sdams, which feign possibility ADCOCK, The BigBad..., tn Arts the of Magazine,April 1983,p. 104;D. KUSPIT,R.S.'s Drunken Boat (1981), in: id. New walkingupon them. The viewer who walkson Smithson's Subjectivism...,Ann Arbor/London1988, pp. 718,229: H.lY. SAYRE,The Object SpiralJetty or Broken Crrcle looks beyond the work itself of Performance...,Chicago/London 1989, pp. 216 with note 13,260ff.). Each of - theseapproaches is only partiailyadequate. onto the surroundingenvironment The relationshipof 22. Quotedwithout reference in: R.5.,pp.75,67,73: alsoquoted in Smithson's the viewer'in'the work to the landscapeis, for Smithson, wordsin: TSAI,p. 106.From Smithson's method of quoting,it followsthat he copiedfrom at leastas important as the top view. With Heizer, on the JorgeLuis Borges' Ihe FearfulSphere of Pascal(accordrng to Eva Schmidtin: TSAI,p. 125,fromid, Labyrinths,New York 1964,pp. 189,192).In other hand, the view o{ the Tumuli from an airplaneis of the originalit reads:C'est une sphereinfinie dont le centre est partout, la considerableimportance to the perceptionof its total form circonferencenulle part (B. PASCAL,ln: L. BRUNSCHVICG,(ed.) Pensees, Parrs 1904,Vol. l, p, 73) In 1966,playng on Borges'title, Smithson wrote about and descriptivefunction. Smithson's forms 'fearful are easily Pascal's sphere'(R.S.,p. 34). Smithson'sunderstanding of Pascalwas not recognizablefrom the ground. limited,however, to the contentof Borges'article - seealso his notes on Whereas, in EffigyTumuI , Heizer romanticizesthe past, Pascal'sdialectics and hrscomparison of Pascaland Descartesin: TSAI, p. 103. 'Kings 23. PASCAL,pp. 78, 86ff. Morris, in his Land Reclamationfor the County Arts 24. R.S.,p. 89 Commissionof Seattle',demonstrates the dark sideof the 25. R.S.,pp. 89ff. present.With his works, which are both 26.R,S., p. 168 ecologically 27.R.S., p. 73 orientedin Morris' senseand formallyconscious in Heizer's 28. (not realized)HOBBS, pp. l98ff.;BEARDSLEY, p. 20 sense,Smithson appears to mediate between both of 29.HOBBS, pp. 174-)77 30. R.S.Drawings from the Estate.See note 21, p. ll5 these standpointsby preservingtheir contrast in the 31.R.S., p.87 sublime.Ecologically oriented Land Reclamationand the 32. L KANT, Kritik der Urteilskraft,Frankfurt am Yain 1977,pp. 172, 195 j. post-moderninterpretation of the sublime,radicalized to a 33. HABERMAS,Der philosophischeDiskurs der Moderne,Frankfurt am flain 1985,p.30 criticismof rationality, are complements:the unbroken 34. B. BLISTENE,A Conversationwith J.-F.Lyotard,in: FlashArt, No. l2l, dominationof naturein the modern traditionsranos In IYarch1985, p. 33 'objective j.F. oppositionto the admissionof 35. R.S.,p. 103;cf. LYOTARD,Philosophie und Malerei...,Berlin 1986, p. 35 the inadequacyof 36.R.S., p. 84 the power of imagination'embodied within the sublime.I 37. E.C. BAKER,Artrlvorks on the Land,in: Art in America,january-February 1976,pp. 93ff.;f'1cGlLL, pp. l9ff.

Translation from the German by Gdrard A. Goodrow and Andreas Fritsch, Cologne.

l. R.S.Writings..., New York 1979,p. 182:cf. R.C,HOBBS, R.S.: Sculpture, lthaca/LondonI98 | , pp. 139,708214 2. HOBBS,p. 209 3. R, MORRIS,Notes on Art as/andLand Reclamation, in: October, No. 12, Sprng 1980,p. 9l; HOBBS,p. 217:).BEARDSLEY, Earthworks and Beyond. New York 1989,pp.97ff. 4. Planecrash on July20, 1973,near his plannedEarthwork Amarillo Ramp, StanleyMarsh Ranch, Amarrllo, Texas Robert SIYITHSON (" l93B Passaic,New Jersey, + 1973 near Tecovas 5. HOBBS,pp.774-727 Lake, Texas) iived and worked in New York. 6. HOBBS,pp.223ff. Thomas DREHER('1957) 7. MORRIS,p. 90;HOBBS, p. 219 is an art critic and livesin Munich, 30