Friday Film Screening on Sep 6—Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty"

In celebration of the upcoming livestream event From Dawn till Dusk:an online encounter between two earthworks by Robert Smithson on September 10th, we are hosting two special Friday Film screenings.

We begin on Friday September 6 with an online screening of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970), which will be available to stream online for 24 hours starting at 12pm Mountain Time (8:00pm Central European Time).

Smithson described the thirty-five-minute film as “a set of disconnections, a bramble of stabilized fragments taken from things obscure and fluid, ingredients trapped in a succession of frames, a stream of viscosities both still and moving.”  The original 16mm film of Spiral Jetty was recently re-digitized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in partnership with Holt/Smithson Foundation; this will be the first digital screening of this beautiful new 2024 scan.

The Friday Films will be made available through Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Vimeo—the link will be made available on this page starting at 12pm Mountain Time on Friday September 6.

From Dawn till Dusk will present a special livestream conversation on Tuesday September 10 between two iconic earthworks by Robert Smithson: from first light at Spiral Jetty, located  at the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah, and concluding with last light at Broken Circle/Spiral Hill located in Emmen in Netherlands. Learn more on our website.

We will continue on Friday the 13th with Nancy Holt’s film Breaking Ground: Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971/2011), which combines 16mm footage Holt shot with Smithson during the construction of the earthwork with material gathered for the 40th anniversary of the earthwork in 2011 to create a portrait of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill and its unique surroundings.

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty [still] (1970)
16mm film
Color, sound
Duration: 35 minutes
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York
Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Archived News

Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson

We are delighted to share details of "Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson," an exhibition launching at Marian Goodman Gallery Los Angeles on November 8, 2025, on show until January 24, 2026. In 1968 Robert Smithson declared: “A great artist can make art by simply casting a glance.” This exhibition takes him at his word ing invites eighteen artists to join Smithson on the floor as partners who resist, improvise, and extend the rhythm of his thinking.