Continuing to look at the fall-out from modernism, this week we explore land-art, performance and installation. Specific emphasis is placed upon the work of Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta.
5. Robert Smithson “One thing films have is the power to take perception elsewhere” (Smithson [1971] 1979, p.105) Spiral Jetty (1970) Actual work made in the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
6. Robert Smithson “Like the nonsite, the Jetty is not a discrete work, but one link in a chain of signifiers which summon and refer to one another in a dizzying spiral. For where else does the Jetty exist except in the film which Smithson made, the narrative he published, the photographs which accompany that narrative, and the various maps, diagrams, drawings, etc., he made about it?” (Owens [1979] 1994, p.47)
7. Ana Mendieta Ana Mendieta, untitled from the Silhueta Series. photographs of performance-based earthworks, Mexico (1973-1980)
21. References Owens, C ([1979] 1994) Earthwords, in Owens, C Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power and Culture. London, University of California Press. Pp. 40-51 Smithson ([1971] 1979) A Cinematic Atopia, in Holt, N (ed.) The writings of Robert Smithson. New York, New York University Press.
22. Appendix: Robert Smithson Site Open Limits A series of points Outer Coordinates Subtraction Indeterminate Certainty Scattered Information Reflection Edge Some Place (physical) Many Non-Site Closed Limits An Array of Matter Inner Coordinates Addition Determinate Uncertainty Contained Information Mirror Center No Place (abstract) One