Art in Unexpected Places

Aficionados need not spend the summer months in a museum; there's sculptural gold in them there hills

By Eric Demby

Andy Goldsworthy, who spent frigid hours affixing individually sculpted pieces of ice in spiral patterns to a remote Scottish tree–only to watch them melt later that day, is the subject of the recent documentary film Rivers and Tides. Christo and his wife/partner Jeanne Claude, who made a sensation when they wrapped a million square feet of Australian coastline in polypropylene for 10 weeks back in 1969, will soon unveil their latest project, The Gates, in New York's Central Park. Since it schemed its escape from the "white cube" of galleries and museum spaces, much of the best art has been increasingly turning up in the strangest places, in the form of what is known as Land Art or Earthworks.

Land artists are revolutionizing modern sculpture by combining a nostalgia for America's fascination with nature (Manifest Destiny, Thoreau's Romanticism) and its obsession with the technology of the future. As is their nature, many Earthworks either deteriorate, die or merge organically with the earth in a testament to the power of time and the very landscape that makes them possible. Before that happens, though, they are alive, well and awaiting visitors. So the next time you plan a museum jaunt, consider instead a trip to, well, the middle of nowhere. Because if Monet or Matisse were around today, they wouldn't be painting; they'd be moving earth around in the desert, just like these artists:

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970), Great Salt Lake, Utah After rearranging 6,650 tons of rock and earth to create a gorgeous coil 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide in the red waters of the Great Salt Lake, Robert Smithson emerged as Land Art's leading proponent. Although Smithson died in a plane crash three years later, Spiral Jetty recently became visible again due to a local drought, and it remains a monument to both his vision and the earth's beauty. www.nps.gov/gosp/tour/jetty.html Michael Heizer, Effigy Tumuli (1985), Buffalo Rock State Park, Ottawa, Illinois The largest sculpture built in America since Mount Rushmore (completed in 1941) represents five local heroes: a snapping turtle, a frog, a water strider, a catfish and a half-mile-long snake. Natives of the adjacent Illinois River, all are the product of a Herculean project undertaken by Land Art pioneer Michael Heizer to reclaim a contaminated coal mine 60 miles southwest of Chicago. Whether hiking the animals or admiring them from above, you'll get the big picture. dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks /i&m/east/buffalo/home.htm#Natural Dale Chihuly, Bridge of Glass (2002), Tacoma, Washington Getting to the new Museum of Glass in Tacoma is half the fun. Glass master Dale Chihuly has adorned the bridge to the museum with hundreds of his ultra-colorful undulating glass sculptures, which create a kaleidoscopic effect when crossing it. Throw in a couple of blue crystal towers and you've got a real glass act. www.museumofglass.org Herbert Bayer, Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks (1982), Kent, Washington One of the foremost examples of Land Art's integration into the social realm is Herbert Bayer's combination public park and storm-water-retention facility. Designed in collaboration with the city of Kent, Washington, the site's grassy mounds, cones and pond are popular with both local folk in the dry months and mountain runoff in the rainy season. www.clr.utoronto.ca/cgi- bin/clrdb/VIRTUALLIB/CLIP/clipadd? DB.REPORT=full&DB.RECORD=163 James Turrell, Roden Crater (begun 1972), Flagstaff, Arizona With an effort of pyramid-like proportions, veteran minimal artist James Turrell has been transforming a former volcano in Arizona's Painted Desert into a massive natural museum of space and light for the last 30 years. Set to open in 2005, among Roden Crater's features will be an observatory for the dazzling characteristics of natural light and spaces specifically designed for viewing the sun's angle at the solstice and equinox. www.rodencrater.org Ant Farm, Cadillac Ranch (1974), Amarillo, Texas Driving down the Texas stretch of Route 66, you'll literally pass a work of art in the land: 30 years ago, the San Francisco collective Ant Farm buried ten old Cadillacs up to their back seats on the land of helium magnate Stanley Marsh, III. The rear half of these classic Caddys, which double as graffiti canvases, wave their tail fins in the air like they just don't care, and symbolize a bygone era of American engineering dominance. www.libertysoftware.be/cml/ cadillacranch/crmain.htm Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field (1977), Quemado, New Mexico This one-mile-by-one-kilometer grid of 400 poles in western New Mexico wasn't built to attract lightning, but as a serene place to wait for lightning to strike. From the on-site cabin, watching the color of the stainless-steel poles in relation to the high-desert sun, clouds and starry night sky is an immersion in nature's raw power so extraordinary it'll brighten any mood. www.diacenter.org/ltproj/lf/index.html Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (1976), Great Basin Desert, Utah No wander around Utah's Great Basin Desert is complete without viewing the four concrete tubes arranged in an "X" known as the Earthwork Sun Tunnels. Nancy Holt (Robert Smithson's widow) positioned the tunnels to encourage interaction with the desert's unique qualities of light, drilling holes atop each in the shape of various constellations to reinforce her point—it's like Hollywood in there with all those stars. Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY Nestled on the Queens bank of the East River, the Manhattan views from Socrates Sculpture Park are commanding, but they've got stiff competition from the Park's art. A former dump purchased for $1, Socrates is New York's secret treasure trove of top-notch sculpture, having shown works by Keith Haring and Vito Acconci—and newcomers' shows are always studded with gems. www.socratessculpturepark.org

Eric Demby writes about art, music, politics and architecture for Artforum, Vibe, Metropolis and the Village Voice.

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