Robert Smithson, during his short life of 35 years, defied conventional art and traditional approaches to art through his use of non-traditional art materials and creating art that represents form and as being one with the earth.
He is most famous for his earthworks like the Spiral Jetty which was meant to be an ephemeral experience as well as defy conventional art by placing the art in the physical landscape as opposed to on it. This 1,500 ft long and 15 ft wide jetty extends into the Great Salt Lake in Utah and allowed for visitors to experience the art as a journey through walking on it.
 |
| Spiral Jetty |
His works consisted of not only earthworks, but drawings, sculptures, photographs, films, etc. Here is an excerpt from the film he created about the Spiral Jetty.
Spiral Jetty is just a prime example of his artwork. Here are some more examples of his non-conventional pieces:
 |
| Dead Tree |
 |
| Partially Buried Shed |
Robert Smithson created artwork that was meant to exist outside of the gallery setting and for this reason, Bourriaud name-drops him in his book called "Relational Aesthetics." Smithson allowed for viewers to think about art in a different, non-conventional way and thus contributed to the idea of relational aesthetics.
I found that Robert Smithson was an interesting artist in relation to the idea of Bourriad. I think the idea of "art in nature" is amazing, especially with the artist Andrew Goldsworthy, although Goldsworthy was after Smithson's time. I think that the idea of "commuting with nature", like the long hike you have to take in order to get to the spiral jetty is what Smithson was aiming for. While I am not sure it is Bourriad's idea of "relational aesthetics/art" it is definitely the "relational art" I can get into.
ReplyDeleteI love this artist's aesthetically pleasing work and I am a huge fan of earth art. The curves and swirls are a nice change from all the cube city and town buildings.
ReplyDeleteAlso, at first when I saw the half-buried shed, I kind of sighed a bit. thought: "found works buried in dirt. yay," but the idea of the earth consuming human structures in the future and possibly eradicating our existence... that's exciting :)
I was going to write about how his work doesn't fit in perfectly with Bourriaud's ideas of relational aesthetics, but Rose's comment elicited some further thought. The idea of how we relate to the earth is prevalent throughout his work. While Bourriaud is talking more about how we relate to each other, Smithson focuses on the importance of our interactions with the earth, and his earthworks embody this idea. Like Rosie, I too am fascinated with earth consuming our human made structures. As Neal Degrasse Tyson said, "Earth will survive climate change. But we won't".
ReplyDelete