Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West

Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West
by Erin Hogan

Discussion Questions

1. On page 12, Hogan discusses the opinion that Dia only supports "privileged" artists and that the organization is "not attentive enough to different currents of artistic inquiry." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

2. On page 27, Hogan quotes Smithson: "Time is always there gnawing at us and corroding our best intentions and all our most beautiful thoughts about where we think we're at. It's always there, like a plague creeping in, but occasionally we try to touch on some timeless moment and I suppose that's what art's about to a degree, lifting oneself out of that continuum." How does Spiral Jetty relate to the concept of time? What about the other works addressed in the book: Double Negative, Sun Tunnels, Lightning Field, etc.?

3. On page 28, Hogan addresses the topic of interventions with earth works, such as the question of whether to rebuild Spiral Jetty post-erosion. How did the various artists discussed in the book think about erosion and natural, progressive change as it relates to their work?

4. On page 36, regarding Sun Tunnels, Hogan says, "This seemed a productive combination of site-specificity and conceptual art, a work that asks the question of whether an idea is enough and of how 'relevant' a work has to be throughout the duration of its life." What do you think the author meant by this? Do you agree?

5. On page 81, Hogan asks, "What drives some people who possess such urges to make the grand gesture, like Michael Heizer and his Double Negative, while others, like Albert and Gladys [Hole n" the Rock], quietly construct something just as monumental?" What do you think?

6. Why does Heizer assert that "size...is the best tool" when it comes to sculpture (p. 95)?

7. On page 108, Hogan asks, regarding Roden Crater, "Who will be transformed by these project? Who will benefit from these pilgrimages, and how profound could that benefit be? Would it possibly be worth 50 million dollars?" What do you think?

8. Throughout the chapter on Lightning Field, Hogan returns again and again to a quote by De Maria in the handbook: "The sum of the facts does not constitute the work or determine its aesthetics." What does this mean?

9. Describe the idea of context as it relates to Judd's work.

10. At the end of the book, Hogan asks several questions regarding the works she has experienced. "Were earthworks objects or environments? Did they function as markers of space or markers of time? Did they have that self-sustaining quality that Michael Fried prescribed, or did they depend entirely on the presence of a viewer for their existence? Was absolute control over context ever possible, or would nature or human nostalgia always intervene?" What do you think?