Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Sand-Box Monument, also called The Desert) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Sand-Box Monument, also called The Desert) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Great Pipe Monument) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Great Pipe Monument) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Bridge Monument Showing Wooden Sidewalks) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Bridge Monument Showing Wooden Sidewalks) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (Monument with Pontoons: The Pumping Derrick) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (Monument with Pontoons: The Pumping Derrick) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Fountain Monument: Bird’s Eye View) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Fountain Monument: Bird’s Eye View) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Fountain Monument: Side View) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Robert Smithson, The Monuments of Passaic (The Fountain Monument: Side View) (1967)
Detail of Monuments of Passaic (1967)
Six photographs and cut Photostat map
Total size: 16 17/32 x 113 25/64 inches (42 x 288 cm)
Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Norway
Originally published in Robert Smithson, “The Monuments of Passaic,” Artforum 6, no. 4 (December, 1967)
Photograph: Robert Smithson
© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Six photographs of unremarkable industrial landscapes in Passaic, New Jersey depict evidence of man-made history, yet the title of “monument” seems ironic. Stripped of any apparent artistic agenda, the images appear photojournalistic—without an accompanying news article to inform our perception. Smithson was perpetually intrigued by suburbia; in its sameness he saw a version of eternity defined by formal repetition rather than temporal longevity. By framing the mundane sites as “monuments,” Smithson challenges the conceptions of aesthetic merit and historical significance. Monuments of Passaic exists as three manifestations: a published article in Artforum, a photowork, and a photographic series.
“I am convinced that the future is lost somewhere in the dumps of the non-historical past; it is in yesterday’s news-papers, in the jejune advertisements of science-fiction movies, in the false mirror of our rejected dreams. Time turns metaphors into things, and stacks them up in cold rooms, or places them in the celestial playgrounds of the suburbs.”
Robert Smithson
Smithson, Robert. "A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey." Originally published as "The Monuments of Passaic." Artforum 6, no.4 (December, 1967).
