Earthworks Observational Kits on the Website

Amarillo Ramp, 2015 - 2016
Wooden box, trowel to bury a significant object at the site, cotton to replace the teddy bear innards strewn on nearby cacti, gloves and pruner to trim overgrown shrubbery, rocks from Spiral Jetty, Sun Tunnels, Double Negative, Roden Crater, The Lightning Field and Amarillo Ramp

In March 2015, I discovered a photograph of James Turrell’s Roden Crater Field Kit (2000). The oak box, reminiscent of a portable desk from the 19^th century, contains instruments used by surveyors, a rock from the location, documents, and maps. I was drawn to Turrell’s idea that other materials were necessary to fully understand an earthwork (and the absurdity that this was the way it should be seen).

While visiting Amarillo Ramp, The Lightning Field, Double Negative, Sun Tunnels and Spiral Jetty in the year and half that followed, I took note of what would have enriched my experience. The objects are those that I wished I had brought, those that were used to perform an action at the site, and those that were culled from the caretakers’ stories. Surprisingly, many focus on cleaning and upkeep – the antithesis of the entropy that some of the artists desired. In the end, Roden Crater makes an appearance, though its observation, due to great cost and inaccessibility, is highly unlikely.

Special acknowledgement to Andy Traub for transforming my crude sketches into three-dimensional boxes, Laurie Blakeslee for gifting me the Golden Guide books from her personal collection, Hannah Barnes for her assistance with the watercolors, and Nate Larson for suggesting that bubbles were the ideal way to interact with Sun Tunnels (he was right, you should try it).

Check out the rest of the kits here. 

Earthworks Observational Kits in the Faculty Show

Earthworks Observational Kit: Double Negative
Wooden box, Golden Nature Guide to Rocks and Minerals, bandages for impending injuries, matches for the impromptu fire pit & notebook for the Geocaching box on the North Cut
2015 - 2016

Earthworks Observational Kit: Roden Crater (Unobserved)
Wooden box & green ribbon closest to the color of money 
2015 - 2016 

Earthworks Observational Kit: Spiral Jetty
Wooden box, paper to soak in the Great Salt Lake and plastic bags for storage, specimen bottles and tags for saltwater samples, rocks to make a mini-version of the jetty & empty Epic Brewery Spiral Jetty India Pale Ale bottle (to be substituted with a full one)
2015 - 2016

Completing the Circle: Amarillo Ramp to Spiral Jetty

Once upon a time in 2009, I selected a part (mainly rocks and sometimes mud) of each earthwork I visited and transferred it to the next: Spiral Jetty to Sun Tunnels, Sun Tunnels to Double Negative, Double Negative to the closest I could get to Roden Crater, Roden Crater to Lightning Field, and Lightning Field to Amarillo Ramp. This presented the anticipatory return to Spiral Jetty to deposit the rock from Amarillo Ramp at an unknown point in the future. Enter a myriad of other concerns that prevented me from taking the exact piece back to Spiral Jetty, or the Amarillo Ramp rain out last May which did not facilitate selecting a new one, and we come to 2016.

Somewhere around here in January while walking Amarillo Ramp, I chose a fragment of red sandstone and it resided....

... in my car's change drawer, bouncing and rattling around over the thousands of miles I trekked across the West since then.

I did not have any intention of visiting Spiral Jetty again this year, but when I discovered I was only 1.5 hours away from it last weekend, I had to make the trip. Note: never visit Spiral Jetty on a Sunday afternoon in the spring as the parking lot was overloaded, teenagers were complaining that their parents dragged them all the way out in the middle of nowhere to see this, and I witnessed a dog peeing on the earthwork (!). None of this qualified as a contemplative experience.

Amidst the hoards, I buried this at the very center. In doing so, I completed a task overdue, I said goodbye to a collaboration long over, and I marked the end of visiting earthworks until another potential school field trip in the future (or Roden Crater miraculously opens to the public for less than a $6500 ticket price before I am dead).

Nancy Holt's "Star Crossed"

Undated and unattributed photograph from the Center for Land Use Interpretation website

According to the CLUI database, Nancy Holt's Star Crossed would be closed due to its dilapidated state. Sunday, Amelia and I were on a mission to see it and vowed we would photograph it whether or not we could get close. It was the summer of many earthworks after all. Why not see one in a neighboring state that was only an hour out of our way?

This is what it looked like shortly after it was built (1979-1980). Image via. 

The CLUI link above also states:

"The piece is made primarily of earth, originally mounded to a height of 14 feet, covering two concrete tubes, one aligned north-south and the other east-west, held in place by a buried steel frame. Until recently, the grounds crew of the University has been attempting to maintain it as part of the landscaping of the property, and it has not been treated as an artwork with special conservatorial needs. Some years ago, due to insufficient irrigation, the grass covering died, and the soil, thus exposed to erosion, slowly slumped down the steep slopes. The sculpture was rebuilt, but with the existing clay subsoil mixed into the topsoil, making for a less resilient form. Efforts to preserve the piece are said to be moving forward, under a new director at the art museum."

 

Here is the satellite map we were armed with to find Star Crossed after leaving the car in the Miami University Art Museum parking lot. We were hoping for something in between the CLUI photograph above and the cover of Sculpture magazine. We were also grateful that the huge rainstorm (number 746 of the season) had passed. The grass was wet but not muddy. If you think the following photographs are overly saturated, blame the non stop rain as they are close to accurate in color temperature.

First sighting.

Creeping closer...

and closer. There is graffiti on the right side of the interior of the tube. It was a little dank and trashy so we did not venture inside.

View of the 6 PM sun through the concrete tube in the opposite direction. Unlike visiting Sun Tunnels in May, the solar rays were plentiful this afternoon.

Overgrown plaque.

The whole point of the piece (or at least the placement of the top tube) is lost without water. Even all the rain could not fill the pool. We climbed up to the back (yes the soil is still uneven but at least it is not mowed) and looked through, wishfully thinking it would be restored soon.

Apparently, I cannot pass up taking a photograph of my muse in a Smoosh t-shirt.

I do not know what it would take to restore Star Crossed and whether or not that would be Holt's intention. I wish all universities that commissioned these earthworks in the first place had the capability of Western Washington University to maintain them.

Observational Kits...

... will be occurring soon but first there is Iceland. Until next time.

Earthworks Road Trip Through the Binoculars

The theme that keeps on giving...

Two versions of the Ant Farm's Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas.

Chinati Foundation, Donald Judd's Concrete Sculptures (so blurry it hurts)

Marfa Lights Observation Building at Sunset (these are the only Marfa Lights we saw and they were photographed from a telescope)

Imagine Walter De Maria's Lightning Field at sunset here.

Very Large Array, Socorro, New Mexico

South Kaibob Trail, South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Wupatki National Monument, Arizona

Michael Heizer's Double Negative with and without scale reference.

Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels (ideal for the format)

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty

Spiral Jetty - Three Visits in 28 Hours

The evening of 18th May. The horizon is straight. The vehicle is crooked.

View of Spiral Jetty through Trevor's phone during the rainstorm on the evening of the 18th.

I take this photograph every visit but this time I forgot to have someone photograph me.

The sky over the top of Spiral Jetty while standing in the middle (for Kristin Reeves). 

During the rainstorm on the 18th May.

Steamed window #1.

Steamed window #2 (both of the above on the 18th May).

Morning of the 19th May.

Practice/demo jetties on the evening of the 19th.
 

 Sunset on the 19th May.

Sun Tunnels (and sheep!)

How often is one stopped by a train en route to an earthwork? We were in Lucin, Utah.

The view from the backseat shows Lexi in the mirror and a couple from Italy in the distance.

My third visit to Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels produced very little sun. This was a brief glimpse of the only shadows we saw inside the sculpture over the two hours we spent there.

I had a long list of performative actions that I solicited from others for Sun Tunnels. For many of them, I enlisted help from willing participants on the field study. The beginning of Hannah Barnes' request for a sun salutation in the middle of the tunnels was performed by four of us but the finale featured me throwing a heart of mud to the east. Photo by Kyla Tighe.

Here Sarah Lassiter is blowing bubbles from a hole that could possible point toward Draco for Nate Larson's request. There is also a hyper lapse video of a variation on Amelia Morris' desire to see me/us crawl through one (the ending is on Instagram).

This was one of my favorite moments when everyone was sketching or observing the artwork. I spent a great deal of time silently studying this piece and look forward to eventually revealing what contents will appear in the Observational Kit.

We drove the northerly route from Sun Tunnels to Spiral Jetty and once again, we were stopped by an obstruction in the road: sheep! This time it proved to be more entertaining as many photographs and videos were taken of the bleating lambs.

West Wendover, CLUI and the Bonneville Speedway

After a very long day of driving through multiple time zones (beginning in Las Vegas and stopping at Double Negative) we arrived at a not so classy motel in Wendover, Utah. Above is the West Wendover Montego Bay Resort as it was more glorious than our dive that featured a bedspread that looked like it came from a nine year old boy's room (at a cabin in the woods far from civilization thirty years ago).

Oh smoke filled casinos, how I equally loathe and am fascinated by thee. Montego Bay may have come straight out of the 1980s with the color choices (think Miami Vice) and the patron's hairstyles.

The next day we woke up early to visit CLUI and after obtaining the combination from the Los Angeles location where I visited in December, we were free to roam three of the buildings. I found the Golden Spike! Amazingly, it was not under lock down and was in dire need of dusting and relabeling.

A display case with objects found on the old Wendover base was included in the Visitor's Center. The Hulk was filmed here and I made it a point to text my brother that I saw a (supposed) prop. He was less enthusiastic than I was despite his love for the green comic book character.

I wish I jotted down the name of this former CLUI resident who photographed items submerged in the salt water. Of particular interest was this typewriter encased in salt crystals, yet its original form was still recognizable.

The Bonneville Speedway is under water more often than not each time I see it. Even though that isn't good for racing, it is excellent for photographs similar to thousands of others taken and posted on social media.

Another view through the back seat of the Chrysler van.

Here I am looking minute in the landscape as photographed by Kyla Tighe. Next stop: Sun Tunnels where all kinds of antics took place (er ... artwork was made).