From Dawn till Dusk: an online encounter between two earthworks by Robert Smithson

Presented by Land Art Lives in collaboration with Land Art Contemporary, Land Arts of the American West, and Holt/Smithson Foundation

September 10, 2024

From 6:00am to 1pm Mountain Time / 8:00am to 3:00pm Eastern Time / 2:00pm to 9:00pm Central European Time

We are proud to present a special livestream conversation between two iconic earthworks by Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty (1970) and Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971). Broadcasting live 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, this special digital event is a part of Land Art Lives, an on-going research project exploring the relevance of Land Art for our current times.

Presented in collaboration with Land Art Contemporary (Netherlands), Land Arts of the American West (Texas Tech University), and Holt/Smithson Foundation (New Mexico), this event will be available as a livestream on September 10, 2024 through the Land Art Lives website.

About the Earthworks

In 1970 the artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) created Spiral Jetty on the Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Made from over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth collected from the site, Spiral Jetty stretches 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide in a counterclockwise spiral. The following year Smithson was invited to create an earthwork in the Netherlands for the recurring outdoor exhibition Sonsbeek by the curator Wim Beeren. Beside a working sand quarry in the province of Drenthe and cut into the side of a terminal moraine, Smithson created Broken Circle/Spiral Hill—his only extant earthwork outside of the United States. On September 10, a dialog will take place between the two sites via a simultaneous livestream broadcast that will begin with first light at Spiral Jetty in Utah and extend to last light at Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in the Netherlands.

Schedule

Throughout the seven-hour program the livestream view of the two earthworks will be accompanied by an evolving program, highlighting a myriad of voices and viewpoints. Students from the Land Arts of the American West program will be on site with Spiral Jetty. Smithson’s writings relating to the two earthworks will be read aloud and later these voices will be joined by a recording from the musician Lee Ranaldo’s audio diary of trying to find Broken Circle/Spiral Hill while on tour with Sonic Youth in the Netherlands. The artist Tacita Dean will join the conversation from Emmen to share her impressions upon her first visit to Smithson’s Broken Circle/Spiral Hill and Spiral Jetty. At 11:00 am Mountain Time (7:00pm Central European Time), Tacita Dean and Chris Taylor, Director of Land Arts of the American West, will be in conversation with Lisa Le Feuvre, Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, to discuss questions surrounding the relevance of land art today.

Site/Nonsite

Robert Smithson was fascinated by the power of photography, film, and language to shape experience. Photographs and footage of both Spiral Jetty and Broken Circle/Spiral Hill have been the primary method for most people to experience these artworks, which can be difficult to access and are located away from urban centers. Through his writings and artworks Smithson investigated this relationship between the physical site in the landscape and the mediated presentation of the work in the exhibition space. He referred to this dialogue between the site (an elsewhere) and the Nonsite (the here) as the Site/Nonsite dialectic. Smithson’s theory of Nonsites radically challenges the boundaries of sculpture to include all the theoretical spaces between artwork and its presentation. From Dawn till Dusk creates a digital space for an unprecedented encounter directly between these two earthworks, opening an opportunity to discuss how media shapes our understanding of sculpture and landscape across time.

Friday Film Screenings

In celebration of From Dawn till Dusk, Holt/Smithson Foundation will host two special Friday Film screenings that provide a window into the concepts and processes guiding Smithson’s creation of these earthworks.

We will begin on Friday September 6 with Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970). 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.

We will continue the following Friday 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. 

Spiral Jetty will be available to stream online for 24 hours starting at 12pm Mountain Time (8:00pm Central European Time) on Friday September 6. Breaking Ground will be available to stream online for 24 hours starting at 12pm Mountain Time (8:00pm Central European Time) on Friday September 13. The Friday Films will be made available through Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Vimeo—follow Holt/Smithson Foundation’s website and social media for links to the films.

About Land Art Lives

Why is land art particularly relevant today? What are its new manifestations? How do we deal with these often impermanent works of art? And how does land art shed light on the urgent ecological and social issues of today? Through the Land Art Lives program, Kunstmuseum M. and Land Art Flevoland will jointly investigate these questions at an international conference scheduled for October 3, 2024, in Lelystad. Prior to the conference, there will be in-depth activities where creators, owners, and other experts will engage in discussions about the future of land art in Flevoland, the Netherlands, and around the world.

About Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson (1938–1973) expanded what art could be and where it could be found. For over 50 years, Smithson’s writings, artworks, and ideas have influenced generations of artists and thinkers to consider site-specificity and land in relation to conceptual and minimalist practices. From his landmark earthworks to his “quasi-minimalist” sculptures, Nonsites, writings, proposals, collages, drawings, and radical rethinking of landscape, Smithson's ideas remain relevant for our times. By investigating the conceptual and physical boundaries of knowledge, Smithson raised essential questions about our place in the world.

About Tacita Dean

Tacita Dean (born 1965, UK) lives and works in Berlin. Working primarily in film, Dean explores the conditions of chance, chaos, and contingency. Dean has been the recipient of numerous prizes including the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award, Royal Geographical Society; Robson Orr Ten Ten Award: A Government Art Collection/Outset Annual Commission; the Kurt Schwitters Prize; the Hugo Boss Prize at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Sixth Benesse Prize at the 51st Venice Biennale.

About Land Art Contemporary

The launch of Land Art Contemporary (LAC) coincided with the 40th anniversary of the creation of the work of art Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, produced by the American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) in Emmen at the invitation of Sonsbeek buiten de Perken (Sonsbeek Beyond the pale) in 1971. The work and ideas of Smithson to this day continue to be of major importance for the program of Land Art Contemporary. LAC focuses on presenting existing and new art projects and cultural heritage in the rural environment of Drenthe and beyond. Art projects in and about the landscape have the power to expand our ideas about this unique and varied landscape. LAC and Holt/Smithson Foundation are working towards a sustainable future for Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (www.brokencircle.nl).

About Land Arts of the American West

Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University is a transdisciplinary field program dedicated to expanding awareness of the intersection between human construction and the evolving nature of our planet. The program leverages immersive field experience in the desert southwest as a primary pedagogic agent to support research opening horizons of perception, probing depths of inquiry and advancing understanding of human actions shaping environments. 

About Holt/Smithson Foundation

Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-1973) transformed the world of art and ideas. Holt/Smithson Foundation develops their distinctive creative legacies. Collaborating with artists, writers, thinkers, and institutions, Holt/Smithson Foundation realizes exhibitions, publishes books, initiates artist commissions, programs educational events, encourages research, and develops collections globally from its headquarters in New Mexico.