a square metal sculpture on the wall next to a square map of the same size displayed on the wall

Smithson at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Robert Smithson’s Mono Lake Nonsite (Cinders Near Black Point) (1968) is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in the exhibition Bound to the Earth: Art, Materiality, and the Natural World, drawn from the museum’s collection. The exhibition continues through March 19, 2020.

Bound to the Earth: Art, Materiality, and the Natural World looks at the ways artists have addressed and represented the landscape. Many of the selected works are made with earthen materials such clay and tar, sticks and soil; others focus on the natural resources that constitute our environment. The exhibition explores how in the late 1960s artists began siting their sculptures, installations, and performances outdoors, engaging with the natural world in contrast to the space of the gallery. These works of land art varied from minimal and ephemeral gestures in the landscape to large movements of the earth.

Mono Lake Nonsite (Cinders Near Black Point) comprises two parts: a steel container holding cinders collected from near Black Point, Mono Lake and a map photostat. Mono Lake is an ancient saline lake located in Mono County, California. In his 1968 essay A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites, published in The Writings of Robert Smithson [p364], Smithson opens his text by stating: “By drawing a diagram, a ground plan of a house, a street plan to the location of a site, or a topographic map, one draws a ‘logical two dimensional picture.’ A ‘logical picture’ differs from a natural or realistic picture in that it rarely looks like the thing it stands for. It is a two dimensional analogy or metaphor – A is Z.” He continues to describe that a nonsite is “an indoor earthwork […] a three dimensional logical picture that is abstract yet it represents an actual site” [original emphasis].

Robert Smithson, Mono Lake Nonsite (Cinders Near Black Point) (1968)
Painted steel container, cinders and map photostat
Site map 40-1/4″ x 40-1/4″; container 7″x 39-3/4″ x 39-3/4″
Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Photograph: Pablo Mason
Installation image of Bound to the Earth: Art, Materiality, and the Natural World, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2019-2020

Art © Holt/Smithson Foundation, licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Archived News

photobooth images of Robert Smithson

Wednesday Writings: Chapter Two

We are delighted to launch Chapter Two of our digital program, Wednesday Writings. During Chapter Two we will focus on writings by Robert Smithson. Every Wednesday in June we will be publishing a text by Smithson to his collection of writings on our website.
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looking through the center of nancy holt's sun tunnels model

"Nancy Holt / Inside Outside" at Bildmuseet

We are very pleased to announce the exhibition Nancy Holt / Inside Outside launches this June, produced by Bildmuseet, one of Sweden’s foremost contemporary art venues. The exhibition explores the artist’s rich artistic legacy through a selection of works spanning 1967 to 1992. This is the most ambitious exhibition of her work to date. Perceptions and demarcations of being "inside" and "outside" guide this survey exhibition.

Robert Smithson's Dead Tree in a white gallery space

Robert Smithson works in "The Power of Wonder" at Museum unter Tage in Bochum, Germany

Works by Robert Smithson will be included in the group exhibition The Power of Wonder: New Materialisms in Contemporary Art at Museum unter Tage in Bochum, Germany. 

Two artworks that Robert Smithson originally made during his time in Germany in 1969 will be on view in the exhibition: Mirror Displacement: Indoors (1969) and Essen Earth  and Mirrors (for Bernd and Hilla Becher) (1969).

The book "Second Site" by James Nisbet.

"Second Site" by James Nisbet

Author and art historian James Nisbet has recently written a new book titled Second Site, which explores "how environmental change and the passage of time transform the meaning of site-specific art." Second Site examines the effect of changing conditions on a number of site-specific artworks, including both Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels (1973-76) and Robert Smithson's 

two people standing at a vitrine with headphones on for the Tour of the John Weber Gallery by Nancy Holt

Discussions On "Sound As Sculpture"

A significant selection of audio works by Nancy Holt are currently on view in the group exhibition Sound as Sculpture at The Warehouse Dallas. 

The Warehouse is hosting a series of discussions on the exhibition Sound As Sculpture, including one upcoming discussion on Nancy Holt's sound works with Lisa Le Feuvre and James Nisbet this Friday, March 18.

black and white, four sun tunnels with a person standing looking through one

Tuesday Texts: Chapter Three

We are delighted to announce that throughout February we will be publishing a third chapter of our Tuesday Text Series as part of our ongoing Scholarly Text Program, which invites thinkers to focus on a single artwork by Holt and/or Smithson.

Every Tuesday we will publish a text to our website that includes images selected by the author, a short bibliography, citation reference, and endnotes pointing to the author’s references.