Tag Archives: Robert smithson
Robert Smithson & Nancy Holt
‘Swamp’, a film by Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt (1969)
Robert Smithson said of the film :”it’s about deliberate obstructions or calculated aimlessness”. This was attained by having Holt walk through the swamp while simultaneously filming, only seeing where she was walking by looking through the lens of her Bolex camera, as Smithson gave her verbal instructions which he recorded as he spoke them.
Ger van Elk
‘La Pièce’ (1971), by Ger van Elk.
In 1971, Van Elk lacquered a small block of wood (7 x 9,5 cm) white, while on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just West of Iceland, in the purest air in the world. It was exhibited in the group show ‘Sonsbeeck buiten de perken’. Van Elk considered it a “European answer” to the megalomaniac artworks that American artists like Richard Serra and Robert Smithson were showing there.