Essay by Dorothy Shi nn

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his catalogue and exhibition on Robert Smithson' s Parliaily Buried
Woodshed retlect the Gallery' s long-term commitment to exhibrtrng
and documenting the work of innovative twentielh cenlury artists The
Gallery is especially Interesled in those artists and works that have a
special connection to northeastern Ohio On January 22,1970, Robert
Smithson donated lhe Partiaily Buried Woodshed to the School ol Art
at Kent Slate University The work had just been created by Smithson
who, along with a handful of students trom the School ot Art, rented a
backhoe and piled 20 cartloads ol dirt on an abandoned woodshed
until the center beam cracked. After an eventful history. the physical
remains ol lhe Woodshedwere removed in January 1984, I The
exhibition represents the support and collaboration of many individuals
and organizalions First ol all, I gratefully acknowledge the support ol
the Ohio Arts Council Additional support was provided by the Art
History Club and the Friends of the Gallery Dorothy Shinn served as
guest curalor, and I am deeply indebted to her for her expertise,
enthusiasm, and hard work lt has, in fact, been a great pleasure
working with her The ideas and knowledge of the material that Ms,
Shinn contributed made the planning and organization ot this very
important project an enjoyable and exciting experience The advice of
Alex Gildzen, Brinsley Tyrrell. Mel Someroski. and Nancy Hot is greatly
appreciated I would also like to thank the Gallery statl - especially
proiect designers Bruce Morrill and Steve Timbrook - for their hard
work and creative input I Without the lenders there would be no
exhibilion Therefore I am gratetul to : The Akron Arl Museum; The
Cleveland Museum ol Art: The Herbert F Johnson Museum ot Arl
Cornell University; The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian Institulron: The John Weber Gallery, New York: the
Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, The Ohio State Universitv; and
Stanlord Aoseloff, Kent
Fred T. Smith, Director
School of Art Gallenes
Kent State University
ometime in the winter of 1984, the
wood and stucco remains ol Par-
ti a I I y B u r ied Woodsheddisappeared
The earth sculplure had been cre-
ated in 1970 by Robert lrving smith-
son (1938-1973), who along with a
handful of students from the Kent
State University School ot Arl, rented
a backhoe and piled twenty cartloads
of dirt on an abandoned woodshed
untilthe center beam cracked Smith-
son then named the work and gave
it to the Universily along with the ad-
moni t i on t o al l ow i t t o decay
naturally (1) I Smithson' smainpur-
pose in making this work was lo
demonstrate the idea ol entropy.
But he was also interested in the ac-
cumulation ot history, envisioning a
work that would increase in meaning
as it decreased in physical reality, a
work lhat would gain in legend as it
diminished in existence. And Par-
tially Bu ried Woodsheddid precisely
lhat. From the momenl il was con-
ceived, Ihe Woodshedcollected at
tiludes. events. actions and asso-
ciations, so that by the time it vanished lrom the earth, it had become
synonymous with an artist, a movement, and an era I Smithson was
born in Passaic, New Jersey, and died thirty-tive years later in a plane
crash in Amarillo, Texas, while surveying his earth sculpture. Amarillo
Ramp, a last work that is in many respects a continuation of lhe ideas
presented in Padially Buried Woodshed In 1969-70 he had done
Asphalt Rundown in Rome, llaly, Concrete Pourlor the Chicago "Art
by Telephone" exhibit, and Glue Pourin Vancouver Smithson, who
had agreed to come to Kent in January 1 970 for a week for $1 000, was
to be artist-in-residence. give lectures and critiques, and culminate his
week-long activities with a mud pour, which would have been an
extenuation of his most recent activities Bul in the frigid cold of that
Northeast Ohio winter, mud would not pour: Smithson got the flu and
retreated to the house of sculplure professor Brinsley Tyrrell. where he
made pl ans to return to
New Yor k. ( 2) But , Tyr r el l
sai d. t he st udent s woul d
not l et hr m: "They
came
out to the house and sat
about on the l i vi ng room
fl oor and tal ked about what
el se they coul d do Wel l ,
sai d Smi thson, he had al ways l i ked the i dea ol buryi ng a bui l di ng "(3)
I How the Woodshed was chosen was partl y a matl er of chance,
partl y ol conveni ence The shed, awood l ath and stucco structure fi l l ed
wi th di rt, gravel and fi rewood, was part of an ol d farm acqui red by the
Uni versi ty and al the ti me was l ocated on an unused back l ot ol the
(Smithson) envisloned
a work lhat would
lncreesg in meaning a3 il
decrcased in phyglcal
reellty.
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campus, far away from the marn burl drngs As Tynel l recal l ed, "One
of
the students got permi ssi on tor that bui l drng Smi thson di dn' t l i ke al l ol
the wood i n there so we carted mosl ol rt oul We spent al l day carti ng
wood out
.l t
was a mi serabl e j ob He sal around and di d drawi ngs ol
how the earth was goi ng to go " (4) I Al ex Grl dzen professor o{ l i brary
admi ni st r at i on, was among t he wr l nesses, t r oezt ng, but t asct nat ed
wrth what was happeni ng ' ' l
remerrber standrng by a fi re whi l e
Smi t hson, sket chbook i n hand. expl ar ned wr l h gest ur es t o l ocal con.
tractor Ri ch Hel ml i ng how to bury l he Woodsl tt}d l -he earl h had been
l rucked there from a constructi on stl c on i l nother part ol campus
Smi t hson t ook pi ct ur es of t he pr ocess wr l h i l n I nst amat i c and i n-
structed Uni versi ty photographer Doug Moore who al so documented
the si te' s constructi on. to try to avord photoqraphi ng peopl e, j ust the
shed and earth and backhoe " (5) I Tht: r:arth was prl ed on the Wood-
shed unt i l t he cent er beam cr acked For Snr r l hson t he cr acki ng ol t he
beam was cruci al to the concept ol the prr)cc tor i t symbol i zed the
begi nni ng of the process ol entropy wl trch l rr: cornpared to Humpty
Dumpty: "A
cl osed system whi ch evenl u.rl l y dr)tenoral es and starts to
break apart and there' s no way that you roi rl l y prece rt back together
agai n "
I Ent r opy i s a concepl t hal hi r s r r r ; r nr l t . , st ed r t sel f i n many ot
Smi thson' s works He bel i eved that not onl y were the processes ol
creatron rmportant, but al so the processes th() prece experrenced afl er
t he cr eat r ng was compl et e These pr occssos he cal l ed ent r opy, t he
gradual di ssol uti on and decay ol organrc matter Smi thson saw
entropy aS part ot an ongoi ng di al ecl rc bel woon accepted, but tor hi m
i ntol erabl e noti ons aboul the permanencc l rxi l y and preci ousness ol
art as obi ect (6) I At that ti me not onl y l hese rrol rons but the concept
ot the gal l ery System i tsel f were under Intense debate In the arl worl d
The bui l di ng ol art works i n remote l ocatrons or l he Intl ratton ol uni que,
temporary art works were some of the new approaches to art maki ng
sparked by these di scussi ons Mi chael Herzer was one of the ti rst
ar t i st s t o br i ng t he gal l er y. as i l wer e, t o t he l andscape I n 1968 he
A'
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created a Series of excavations in
Massacre Dry Lake, Nevada, called
Nine Nevada Depressions. This
work. now deteriorated. can be
seen most easily in photographic
documentation Smithson and his
wite, artist and filmmaker Nancy
Holt,
loined
Heizer in Nevada that
summer and Holt took pictures of
Smithson digging a trench tor /so-
lated Mass/Ckcumfrer, the ninth ol
thedepressions. I Smithson had
been experi ment i ng wi t h seri al
sculpture of progressively increas-
ing size. such as the illusionistic
P/unge (1966) and lhe Alogon
series, when he began to make the
shitt to working with large ouldoor
sites The first of these was Pro-
posals lot lhe Dailas-Fort Wotth
Regional Airport (1966), never re-
alized. The most signilicant of
them was Partially Buried Wood-
shed, lot it marked the beginning
of outdoor works on a grand scale.
(7) I Smithson had been work-
ing in the actual landscape for two
years when he began making ex-
cursions to
"urban,
industrial and
quarry siles in New Jersey, many
of which he documenls in a photo-
journal "
The year Heizer made his
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Nevada work, Smithson made three works which he called Nonsltes
These involved traveling to a particular location, mapping the location
with aerial maps, collecting material kom the site and placing it in
painted metal bins He exhibiled lhe bins along with maps ol the area,
so that the non-site (the bins) actually and conceptually would reflect
the site (maps) I Later, Smithson played further on the concept of
site displacement and reflection' .the actual and the conceptual--
through the use of mirrors He wrote: "l' m
using a mirror because the
mirror in a sense is both the physical mirror and lhe rellection: The mir-
ror as a concept and abstraction; then the mirror as a fact within the
mirror of the concept Here the stte/non-site becomes encompassed
by mirror as a concepl--mtrroring, the mirror being a dialectic The
mirror is a displacement, as an abstraction absorbing. reflecting the
site in a very physical way lt' s anolher level of process thal l' m
exploring A difterent method of containment." (8) I Smithson also
used mirrors in the landscape to etfecl an onsite displacement as it
were The most notable of these mirror displacements occurred in tn-
cidents ol Mirror Travel in the Yucatan, published in Ailorum in
Seplember 1969 Smithson took a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula and
documented a series of nine mirror displacements through photo.
graphs and an essay The published article is considered a work ol art
Seen as one of Smithson' s most complex pieces, it combines imagery,
narration, art history, and criticism I Wtrite in lhe Yucalan, Smithson
stayed at the Hotel Palenque, a run-down establishment in simultane-
ous states ol ruin and renewal The hotelwas being rebuilt. but instead
of being leveled at once, as we would do it in the U,S., it was being torn
down in some places,newly built in others The notion of slow
destruction and an archileclure that defies lunctionalism fascinated
Smithson, and he used his photographs as the basis ol a lecture
delivered to architecture students at the University ol Uiah in 1972
(9) I These, then, were some of the ideas that had been fulminating
in Smithson' s head when he arrived at Kent State University during one
Smithson saw enlropy
as parl of an ongoing
dialoctic between
accepled notion3 about
lhe permanence, lirily,
and preciousness of arl
es obiect.
of the coldest winters on record and found thal mud would not pour.
The alternative ol burying a small, makeshift outbuilding on an aban'
doned larm seemed al firsl not nearly as significant as pouring mud
down a hillside I Tynell, lor one, had no idea that the Woodshed
would become a major work of art. "lt was like this," said Tyrrell
"You
bring a visiling artist in and have him do his thing. When he did it, we
said to ourselves. ' let' s try to keep this going for a while,' But I don' t
believe we thought it was going to get terribly imporlanl. lt shocks me
when I see a whole wall ol photographs in some museum devoted to
Smithson: some ot them were original pholographs ol Woodshed and
some were later " (10) I Even though no one thought the burying of
lhe Woodshed would grow into anything greater, Smithson did one
more thing before he left Kent He gave the work a name and a value
of $10,000 On January 22, the date the work was completed, he
signed a statement, giving the work to the University (1 1
) By doing that
he made it necessary lor Kenl to deal \with something that lvould both
baflle and frustrale the University at almosl every turn. I For Tynell,
assigning a dollar value tolhe Woodshedwas merely a tactic to keep
the University hom bulldozing over the piece afler the spring thaw: "lt
was given a $10.000 value because il we were going to try to preserve
this thing, lhen we could argue money," said Tyrrell "l didn' t want to
argue aesthetics with the University So Smithson called Dwan (his
gallery at the time) and asked Dwan to give him a value And that was
the number they came up with The money thing was always a game-
at least I think it was--to convey its imporlance to people to whom you
couldn' l talk about aeslhetics " (12) I On January 23 Smithson
returned lo New York. In Aprilthat same year he built perhaps his most
lamous work, Spiral Jetty. at Rozel Point in the Greal Salt Lake, near
Ogden. Utah At lhat same site. Smithson made use ot another wood-
shed by spreading mica over the lloor of the building and on the
adjoining concrete slab outside. Holt remembers the use of lhat
woodshed: she also recalledlhe Spnal Jeny Museum, a proiect never
real i zed: "He was goi ng to bui l d a l i tl l e museun) near l he Sgral Jetty,
and t hat museum was goi ng t o be cover ed wi t h ear t h
" ( 13) I Smr t h-
son di d make the cl assi c fi l m
"fhe
Spi ral Jetty, however, and he made
several proposal s that year tor proj ecl s thi l t were never real i zed:
Texas Overilow, Barge of Sulphur Floating lsland: To Travel Around
Manhaftan tstand: and Boston Project Juggernaut (14) I While
Smi thson was otherwi se engaged, Kent State Unrversi ty became the
focus of nati onal atl enti on, when on May 4, 1970, l our students were
ki l l ed and ni ne others wounded by Ohi o Nati onal Guardsmen dunng a
protest on l he campus agai nst the Ameri can i nvasi on ol Cambodi a
The campus was shut down, and the tragedy domrnated the headhnes
here and abroad for weeks and months to come
(1
5) I Hol t recal l ed
t he shoot i ngs vi vi dl y: "l t hi nk one of t he most shockr ng t hi ngs. when
I look back, were the Kent shootings lt shocked me more than the
president getting assassinated I think it changed everyone' s mind,
even those who were conservative. So many people just switched
their beliefs overnight afler that. Everything just became very, very
clear." (16) I Sometime during the period when the University was
closed (Gildzen believes it was in July, six months after Smithson left),
someone painted in bold white letlers on lhe woodshed"May 4 Kent
70 " Thus, the piece which had already undergone some controversy
became irrevocably linked with the shootings at Kent State University
(1 7) I Said Holt: "obviously, the students, or whoever did that gralitti-
-it' s an example ol gralitti that enhances--the students obviously
recognized the parallel. Piling the earth until lhe central beam cracked,
as though the whole government, the whole county were cracking
Really, we had a revolution then lt was the end of one society and the
beginning ol the nexl." This view of the work rellects the same
sentiments voiced in a 1 975 lener f rom Holt to Gildzen in which she said
she believed lhe Woodshed lo be "intrinsically political" and that
Smithson himsell had seen the work as ' ' prophetic" (18) I Had it not
been tor those few strokes of white oaint. one wonders if the Woodshed
might not have been left to rot in relative quiet Even Gildzen, who
normally takes a laissez-laire view of bureaucratic machinations,
wondered it the May 4 link did not eventually alienate, as he put it,
"certain universily administrators who were lo stand against the
piece' s preservation " (1 9) I For about two years while the University
was othen,ise occupied in rebuilding its shatlered reputation, the
Woodshed enioyed a brief peace Then, in 1973 Smithson died in an
airplane crash while on an aerial observation f light lor the tinal planning
stages of a site on a privale ranch in Texas owned by Stanley Marsh,
lifteen miles northwesl of Amarillo Townshio--a site that would even-
tually become Amaillo Ramp (20) I Seven months after Smithson' s
death, gallery owner John W Weber, representing Nancy Holt, wrote
Gif dzen, asking about the state of the Woodshed and wondering if "the
5
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school r s i nf or med ol t he consr der abl e I nl nnsr c val ue of t he wor k "
Weber al so t ol d Gi l dzen t hat when
' Bob made t he pi ece. t he of l gi nal
i dea was t hat i t be al l owed t o
' go
back l o l he l and , however . Mr s
Smi t hson f eel s t hat because t he or ece r s an I nr oor l ant wor k, i t shoul d
be preserved and taken care ol
"
Grl dzen l orwarded a copy ol Weber' s
l et t er t o l hen Uni ver si t y pr esi dent Gl en A Ol ds ( 21) I Four mont hs
l at er Ol ds. ant i ci pat i ng t he deadhne l or sonr e l andscapr ng l o begi n i n
t hat ar ea and not knowi ng l he Unr ver sr l y' s conr mi l nr ent t o l he scul p-
t ur e, had asked Uni ver sr t y ar chr t ecl Gt r e Russo l o pr epar e pl ans l or
l andscapr ng t he ar ea Thr s pl an cal l ed l or l l r e ( : l r r nr nal r on ol t he Smi t h'
son ear t hwor k and r ai sed an upr oar anr onq l h( ) , l r t school f acul t y The
pr obl em was r esol ved by t he 15 mer r l b( ) r l Jnr ver sr t y Ar t s Commi ssi on
(UAC). whi ch. to the rel i el ol l he Woodshed
suooorters, voted to save i t l t woul d bc a shorl
l i ved r el r el however , and f r om t hr s por nt onwi l r d
l he Woodsheds accumul al i on ol hrstory i ttor
al l y caught f i r e I On Mar ch 28, 1975 dur r nq
t he Uni ver si t y' s spnng br eak, someone bur ncd
t he st r uct ur e, act ual l y dest r oyr ng most ol l h( :
l eft hal f ot the shed. where the l ogs had bccn
st or ed, but spar i ng t he si gni f i cant r i ght t r al l
wher e l he ear t h had been pi l ed ( 22) Bet wecn
t he bur ned hal f of t he shed and t he undanl aged
hal f . pol i ce t ound an empt y, benl Pepsr c; t n
wi t h a smal l amount ot ker osene i n r t Al t hough
arson was suspected, no charges were ever
f r l ed ( 23) I Uni ver si t y ot f i ci al s wanl ed t o
demol i sh t he whol e st r uct ur e- - bot h t he bur ned l et t hal t and t he undam-
aged r i ght hal f - - because, t hey sar d, nol onl y was r l no l onger t he
or i gi nal wor k. i t had become unsaf e and was a eyesor e Hol t however ,
wrote a l etter to Ol ds aski ng that the scul pture be saved She had
vi si ted the si te shortl y al ter the fi re and had decrded that even though
" The money thing was
al ways I geme l o con-
Yey ils imporlance to
poople lo whom you
coul dn' t tal k aboul
ae3thel l cs." Tyrei l
the work was partially deslroyed, it should be allowed to remain in its
damaged condition She made several suggeslion as to how the
damaged portions ol the shed might be reinforced and asked that she
be kept inlormed about the preservation of "this signiticanl art work
"
(24) Holt recalled that Olds wrote back "telling me the University was
going to keep the woodshed " But her suggestrons were never acted
uDon lnstead. UAC recommended that the burned section and
remaining roof be torn down and removed (25) I Meanwhile, debale
as to the merits of the Woodshedwere being broadcast in the campus
newspaper (26) lt was during this debate lhat a new lheme was de-
veloped that would eventually lead to the wc, k' s disappearance Thrs
was the increasingly voiced concern for the safety ot those who might
make the trek to the spot and Inlure lhem-
selves on the debris Thus the policy of
labeling whatever fell to the ground "debris"
:' > was established About the same time that
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UAC voted to save the sculpture, the campus
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began t o hear l rom a previ ousl y dormant
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coirminee called rhe Commission on Cam-
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(CCPNE), whi ch event ual l y urged t hat t he
.
Smithson work be destroyed. (27) I So Olds
had two proposals: To save lhe Woodshed
and to tear il down And the groundskeepers
also had their jobs to do while olds was pon-
^
deri ng whi ch recommendat i on t o f ol l ow,
groundskeepers did what they are paid to do-
-cart away debris, including the charred remains of the left half ot the
Woodshed. I The day the grounds crew arrived with its backhoe,
Tyrrell, Gildzen, and acting direclor ol the School ot Art, Robert
Morrow, went to the site and spent the day arguing which portions of
lhe Woodshedcould be removed and which should rematn (28) While
7
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they were al the site defining whal was and was not debris, Gallery
Director Mel Someroski was on the phone to University administrators
defining their legal obligations to the work Their eftorts saved the
unburned halt from the bulldozer' s bucket and provided a lew onlook-
ers with momentos Gildzen managed to collect a relic from the burned
left half. a charred piece of siding which he gave to the University' s
Special Collections. I That was 1975 Atler that the commorron sur-
rounding the Woodshed seemed to subside, and it was lett for a while
to seek its own destiny But the University still wasn' t pleased with the
work There it was. a charred and crumbling shed partially engulled by
a weed-intested mound ol dirt, sitting out in ihe middle ol an open field
facing Summit Street, which because it led to the new stadium had
become a new gateway to the campus From Summil it was easy to
see that on lhe broken lintel of the Woodshed, standing out bold and
white. was the
"May
4 Kent 70" gratliti, lt was one ot the first things
visiting alumni saw, and it disturbed them So the University came up
with a solution: They landscaped the site In reality the landscape was
a barricade--a dense clusler of last growing conifers, strategically
placed so as to block a clear view of the work from either Rhodes Road
or Summit Streel One actually had to walk out to the site to see
it I And walk out to the site they did The place had become a kind
ol shrine--one of the first places visiting artists asked to be taken (29)
lronically, however, among many ol the Art School f aculty the work was
eilher resented or nearly forgotten Indeed, one ol the ironies ol the
work is that rt usually has been betler known and appreciated else-
where In 1980 a Kent State University professor told a class that the
work had (thankfully) long ago been demolished (30) This startling, if
erroneous, revelation prompted some students to investigate and that
same winler make a pilgrimage to the spot to toast the still standing,
though much diminished, work on its tenth anniversary (31) I Two
more years were lo pass with scant notice given lo lhe Woodshed,
except tor the occasional art class visit or lone student fulfilling an as-
signment In the summer of 1982 artist and former Kent graduate
student John Parcher look several photographs ol lhe Woodshed.
Robert Beckman' s photos were taken in the fall of 1982, and the
lollowing winter Patrick Wilbraham used the Woodshed to meet the
requirements of a photography class As these pictures show, the
cracked cenler beam had already lallen down. and the sides were
beginning to cave in The process ol entropy was accumulating.
I We donl know precisely when the Woodshed was finally taken
away, but we do know whalever debris fell to the ground was carted
away by Unrversrty groundskeepers dorng routine maintenance The
fact ol its disappearance was nol noticed until February 1984 But by
reconstructing the events, we can surmise that in January 1984,
lourteen years to the month alter Smithson piled dirt on the shed and
cracked the center beam. the physical remarns of the Woodshedwere
removed (32) I The work. whrch had become part of the James A
Michener Collection at the Kent State University School of Art, had
been gi ven vari ous val ues I n 1970 Smi t hson' s gal l ery came up wi t h
the figure $10,000 When the University Art School had the piece
reevaluated lor insurance ourooses in 1981. rt was said to be worth
$40,000 But John Weber of Weber Gallery, which had represented
the Smithson estate srnce the Sculotor' s death. said, when told of the
shed' s disappearance, that the work had a value of $250,000 (33)
Some have wondered il the work is worth anything now, because all
thats left of the sculptufe is the mound of earth, the foundation of the
shed, the memory of lhe work, and these photographs I For some,
that puts Smithson and several of his works in the conceptual arl
category, but that not only misrepresenls the history of the work but
disregards the artisl' s point of view. For Smithson was very much
against conceptual arl as several of his published wrilings attest.
Indeed, all of Smithson' s works, even the unrealized proposals, were
meant to be actual, not conceptual I During the last five years of his
life Smithson had been at the vanouard of an art movement known as
.
->-r-
-.
Had i t not been l or
t hose l ew sl r okes of
whr t e pai nt one
wonder s i l t he
Woodshed mi ght not
have been l e(t to rot i n
rel ati ve qui et.
w
k' *. p*e
Earth Art. a form that grew out of the Minimalisl movemenl ol the late
1960s The Mi ni mal i st s changed t he basi c nal ure ol t hree-di mensi onal
art according to sculptor Robert Morris, "kom particular forms to ways
of orderrng, to methods of production. and finally to perceptual rele-
vance
"
Or lrom object' oriented arl to systems-onented art; trom
things to the way things are done (43) I The growth of Earth Art kom
Minimalism was progressive rather than radical Smithson and others,
notably Morns Heizer. and Walter de Maria, gradually shifted their
focus trom the art makrng-systems to a more literal use of material and
the processes themselves (35) I In many of his works, and certainly
ln his last ones--Parlially Buried Woodshed. Spiral Jetty. Broken
Circle Spiral Hillrn Emmen, Holland. and Amarillo Ramp-both the use
of spirals and the process ol entropy were of prime importance, and in
Smithson' s mind the two ideas fed one upon the other I The idea ot
the spiral had been used in his work almost from the beginning (36)
The mounC ol earth that Smithson used for Partially Buried Woodshed
was not casually placed: it formed a climbing, curved ramp shape,
hinting at a spiral According to Robert Swick. a friend ol Smithson' s
and t he st udent responsi bl e l or bri ngi ng hrm t o Kenl : "he (Smi t hson)
made drawrngs beforehand of exactly how it was going to be, and the
earlh was put on scoop by scoop. like applying paint with a brush "
1371 I Entropy and the spiral are but two aspects of time, and time in
all its aspects was extremely important to Smithson throughout his life
as a art i st As earl y as' 1964. i n an unpubl i shed proposal l or a work.
tilled The Elminalor Smithson revealed this Interest He described the
work as "a clock that doesn' t keep time but loses it The intervals
bet ween t he t l ashes of neon are' voi d i nt erval s' or what George Kubl er
calls
' the rupture between past and luture' fhe Eliminator o(derc
negative time as it avoids histoncal space
" (38) I But the krnd of time
Smithson most wanted to represenl was not our conlemporary sense
of t i me, but a ori mordral t i me--t i me t hat t l ows I n buri ed st reams. t hat
t1l
I
((
Tr
ury*'
,&;;',
&
,m.i fr*
) -
t '
h wes on6 of lhe
ti rsl l hl ngs vl 3l i l ng
al umni saw, and i l
di sturbed l hem.
shi t l s i n geol ogr c measur es and wear s I n
gl acral cycl es not measured i ncremen
tal l y nor kept by cl ocks (39) I Smrl h.
son was keenl y awar e ot l he many vi ssr -
t udes of t i me, and hr s r umt nat i ons on t he
subj ect eventual l y l ed hrm to the devel -
opment of a theorel rcal base tor hi s art
t hat he cal l ed ent r opy ( 40) l t was, t o put
i t mi l dl y, a phr l osophy opposed l o t he
mechani st i c, t r me cor l quenng vi ew of t he
wor l d and ant i t het r cal t o not t ons of pr e-
ci ousness and r mmut abr ht y aut omal i cal l y
gi ven t o anyt hr ng cal l ed ar t ( 41) Thi s
vi ew of art woul d put
Smrthson at odds
wi l h t r adi t r onal not r ons nol onl y ot ar t
maki ng, but arl buyrng and preserval i on
l l i S a vi ew t hat f hes I n l he f ace ol t he
concept s ol museunl s. gal l er i es, and ar l '
as- commodi t y ( 42) I I n vr ew ot Smi t h-
son' s strong i nvol vemenl wrth entropy
and hi s i roni cal vi ew ol technol ogy, Par-
ti al ly Buried W oodshedbecomes increas-
i ngl y i mpor t ant as a manr l est at i on ol hi s
phi l osophy l l s creati on and decay serve
nol onl y to recogni ze In the most con-
crel e way ti me' s succesi ve condi ti ons,
but t o make cl ear Smi t hson' s ongoi ng
scul ptural concern wi th the probl emati c
nature of torm-- not i ts mysti que, but i ts
mutabi l i ty For smi thson "al l owed for
seasonal vanat r ons i n t he st at e of ht s
sculptures He assumed multiple states,
not just one
" (43) I And in a very real
sense. those states continue to multi-
ply, the organization of this exhibit and
writing ot this catalog being among them
Thus, in many ways the work conlrnues
to exrst For just as Panially Buried
Woodshed was a "seminal work which
has influenced much other art." it is also
a work ot many parts, the disinlegration
of the wood-and stucco structure being
one I As Tyrrell noled: "All
that he
(Smithson) was concerned with was
that il picked hislory up--thal it didn' t get
built and bulldozed over And it' s picked
up a preny good history while it stood,
anyone who knew anything about art
wanted to see it Every time we had
Blossom, we took visiting arlists over
there and showed il to them, like a pil-
grimage lt' s one ol the most intluential
things in contemporary art." (45) I The
special leature ol Paniaily Buried Wood-
shedwas the notion ol a breaking poinl,
and somehow this leature permeated
its surroundings. lt became not only a
sculpture (and tor some a shrine), but
an important symbol ol a period during
whrch the morals and ethics of a Univer-
sity, a state and even a nation were
pushed beyond what they could bear
: i
. $'
.
{id
fll
l For some t he or ocesses i ni t i -
at ed i n 1970 by t he br eaki ng of
the center beam came to a con-
cl usi on al mosl exact l y f our t een
year s l at er when t he t i nal f al l en
remains of Parila lly Buried Wood-
sf,ed were carted away But for
many ol her s, mysel f i ncl uded,
even t hough t he mor t al r emai ns
ol l he Woodshed have di sap-
pear ed because of t i me, t he wor k
of art l i ves on In soi te of i l
12
13
4
f
Giklzen, Aler' Padially Eudedwooct-
shed A Roberl Smithson Log " Arls
Magazine Spcial lssue: Robn
Smi r hson, May 1978. p 118
Tyrrel l , Bri nsl ey Intervi ewon March
22, 19t!4
Tyrrll Intorview
Tyrrell intrview
Gtdzsn. "Paftially Euried Wood-
shet
Alloway, Lawrenco "Robert Smith-
son's Dvelopmenl " Artlorum. No-
vmber 1972 Pages 53-61 Al -
loway notss that "entropy rs a loaded
term in Smithson's vocabulary ll
customaily means decreasing or-
gani zal i on and. al ong wi l h that, l oss
of distinclivensss " But "Smithson's
appligs lho idea to tim Basrcally,
Smithson's idea of entropy concerns
not only th dolerioralion of order,
though h obsrvs il avidly, 'but
rathr the clash ol uncoordinald
orders,' to quote a formulalion of
Rudol ph Arnhi m' s' Se al so Th
Wrilirs of Robert Smithson, ed
Nancl Hol t, pp 189-195 New York:
New York Univrsity Press, 1979
Robrr Hobbs Robrt Smithson:
Sculpture lthaca and London: Cor-
nl l Uni vsrsi ty Press, 1981, p 191,
andOnsi tef4 (Fal l 1973, pp26.30,
intrview with Alison Sky
lbrd "there is a shitt in Smilhson's
work lo outdoor silss solely, larg in
scale. andfredol significativebonds,
which is marked by his Panially
gut-
ied W@dshed. 1970. al Knt State
Uni versi ty, Ohi o,. He had akady
used a truck i n Asphal t Bundown l he
year bfore, and now he used a
backhoe on a lraclor lo pil dirl onto
the shed unti l the central bam
cracked The man-made (lhe struc-
ture) and the inchoate (disordered
masses ot soil) were broughtlogether
l o create a sl ress si tuatron Ths work
was l i ni shed when the beam broke,
so that l he ti mi ng of col l apse i s, i n a
sense. the subict landscape and
its systems or ordering have been
fami l i ar l o Smi thson most ol hi s [fe,
and their oresence can b lslt on
every l evel ol hi sartandthi nki ng He
rs not building barriers around trag-
ments of prsonalily or stylistic inno-
vatron. as happened wilh a good
deal ot arl In the' 60s He does not
attempt to fix reality in a permannl
l orm by means of art, but demon'
strates a sustained and interlocked
view of a permanent reality
"Robrt Hobbs Robert Smithson:
Scul pture Pags 132-5
l bi d Pages 164-5
Ty(el l i ntervi ew
Smi l hson' s Deed. i n hi s own hand-
witing , giving Parr,a lly Buried Wood-
sf,od to Kent state university De-
oanmenl ol Arl
12 Tyrrel l i ntervi ew
13 Nancy Hol l Intervrew on Apri l 23.
1 984
14 Hobbs, pp 241-43
15 Akr onBeaconJour nal May5 1970
16 Hol t i nl ervi ew
' 17
Gi l dzen. Al ex Intervrew on Aonl 17
1 984
18 Hol l i ntervi ew Seeal soHobbs,page
191
19 Gi l dzen i ntervi ew Hol l agreed wi th
Gi l dzen' s assssment, bul l or ol her
reasons "The history ol the wood-
shed really reflecls on a lor of lhe
oolitics and social bhavior and the
thsoris ol mainlenance and dan-
ger," she said "Works of art tond to
bs tocal points and centers of energy
that other pople spin otl of, and
lhal's bcause works ot arl have no
other reason lor existencs; they are
nol l here l or any funcl i onal reason.
sothey get fight to the heart of lhings "
20 Hobbs. o 243
21 Gildzen, "Pattially Euried Wood-
shed
22 Bierman. William "Burn lhe WoN-
shed! Soare the Wooclshed Bea-
con Magazine, Akron Beacon Jour-
nal , Jul y 7. 1975. p 6 See al so
Gildzen,'Panially Euried Wood-
shed. "o 119
6
14
I
10
1l
23 Kent State University Police Crims
Report, Case Report No 5-2300
-Arson Firo at Vacant Field and Shsd
at Summi t St and Rhodes Rd " 28
March, 1975 (2048 hrs )
24 Hott, Nancy Letter to Olds, 4 May
1 975
25 Hol l i ntervi ew See al so Bi erman, p
6. and Gildzen, 'Partially Builed
Woodshed." p 119-120
26 "Leners to l he Edrtor " The Oai l y
K6nl Stater,20 May 1975 See fac-
si mi l , p 3, Appndi x L
27 Brerman, p 6-7
28 Tyrrell interview See also Gildzen,
" Panally Buried Woodshed," p 120
29 Tyrrel l i ntervi ew
30 This is lhe recolleclion of th authot
The event occurred in a painting
cl ass
31 Ni ghswander, Marcy Photograph,
Akron Bacon Journal, January 23.
1980, Sec 8, p 1
32 Shi nn, Oorol hy "KSU Woodshd
Drsappears: Only Foundatlon, Pile
of Drrt Rmai n " Akron Beacon
Journal , February 25, 1984, Sec, C
P 1, co 1- 6, ' Bi char dE Dunn, KSU
vice-Dresidenl ol business atlairs and
l r easur er , sai d l he uni ver si t y
groundskepers had inslruclions nol
to remove any standrng slfucture al
the si t "The onl y thi ng we have
done with il is to lake away the loose
debri s that was around the oul srde,'
he sai d Thrs "l oose debri s' was re-
moved, according lo hrs records, on
April 22. July 20. and October 25,
1 983. andagarn on January 3, 1984 "
33 Shi nn See al so Keuhner. John C
"Artful Vanrshrng Acl ? ' ShedGone,
Val uedal $25.0O0
" Record Coufl r.
Kent' Ravenna, Ohi o, Feb.uary 27,
1984, DD 1 and I 1
34 Anderson,Wayne Ameri canScul p-
l ure In Progress: 1930/1970 (Bos-
ton: New York Graphi c Soci el y.
1975), pp 239 259
35 One ol the earhest pieces to engage
in lhe objectification ot syslems are
l he Al ogonscul ptures In' l 966usi ng
contradiclory malhematical systgms.
Smi thson desi gned three groups of
slepped sculptures that he named
A/ogon Combinrng a linearequation
l hal ordered each i ndrvi dual uni t and
a quadratic equation thal orclered the
uni ts as a group. Smi l hson set up a
conlradiclion lhat resulted in a subtle
lension belwen th stalic consecu-
tive grouprng of repealed torms land
thdynami c orderi ng ol space They
apparlo recde to a vanFhing poinl,
warping real space and making it
sem illusionislic
Smithson said ol this work: "the
lille AlQgon comes Irom the Grek
word which rsfrs to th unnamo-
abl. and inational numbr. There
was ahflays a sense of o.dring, but
I couldn'l really call il malhematrcal
notation, There was a conscious-
ness ol geomtry lhal I worked from
in a kind ol intuitive way But it wasn't
in any way notational "
In anci ont Grsok phi l osophy,
Logos rferrd to lhe logic behind
th conlrolling principle in the uni-
verse as wll as the gnius manifest
in creation But Smithson saw many
ol man's etlorls to order and explain
the univers lhrough syslems of logic
as absurdi ti es--anal ogous to the
medeival scholastic argumonl aboul
lhe numberof angels thatcoulddancs
on the head of a pin--syslems con-
line and limit, rather that oxplain--
conceal more lhan they rveal.
Thus through thoir inort and static
qualilios, the Alogons manifest an
absufdity as well as a corrcptual
entropy bcaus,, in Smithson's viw,
"thoy absorb tho viower's activ vi-
sion and yild nolhing in relurn x-
cept thir own emptiness' They
'empty vision ol meaning; lhy dully
appar lo b logical but in lacl con-
tlale logic, rendring il illogical and
mani ngl ess' Hobbs, pp 66-70
36 Whn he lirst xhibild at tho Jswish
Musoum i n New York i n 1966 i n a
show callsd "Primary Slructurs," his
work, shown with those of olhsr
Minimalisls, seemd, as on critic
puls il, "eccentric, compared to lhe
prevalont notion of ths Minimalisl
sty'e smithson's adoplion ol th
spiral molif conlraslod strongly wilh
ths inrl and slf-contained icons ol
Minimalism--th circl, tnanglo, rec'
tangle or square His spirald Mi,zot
P rolotyp tot Ae d al An P rot&t, 1 967,
lor exampl, and evn bulkisr Gy-
rostags of 1 968 appafenlly relaie lo
I
g|h-century
syslems ot logarilhmic
expansion, or to organic and cryslal-
line growlh, or prhaps evn to the
spiral as a tiophysical symbol of life
itslf Not unril lhs buikting of Spral
Jetu in 1g7O did smithson's usage
bcom9 clearr;tho spiral is relaled
lo his nolions of enlropy and irrversi-
bilty A spiral vsc-lors ouhflard and
si mul l aneousl y shr i nk i nwar d- - a
shap that circuilously dtines itsef
by ntwining space wiihoul sealing il
otl Oneentersth Spiral Jettyback-
ward in time, baring to the letl,
counte.clockwisg, and comss out
lorward in lime, baring to lhe right,
clockwiss" Coplans, John 'Ihe
Amaiilo Ramp,' Atlilorum, April 1 974,
Pp 37
37 Bi erman
38 Smilhson, Robltl.' The EliminatoL"
1964 ThWri ti ngsol RobrtSmi th-
son, Ed by Nancy Holl, (Nsw York:
New York University Pross, 1 979), p
207
39 Smithson. 'Entropy and the New
Monumsnts." Th Writings ol Robert
Smithson Also se A/t/orum, June,
1966 He wrole that "lnslead ot
15
rl
16
causing us to remembr the pasl lik
the ol d monuments, the new monu-
menls seem to cause us to forgel the
luture Instead of bing mads of
natural materi al s. such as marbl e.
granite, or other kinds ol rock, the
new monuments are made of arl i l i .
ci al mal eri al s, pl asti c, chrome, and
el ectri c l i ght They are nol bui l t l ot
the ags, but rai her agai nstthe ages
They are involved in a syslematic
reduction ol time down to fractions of
seconds, ralher than in representing
the l ong spaces ol centuri es Bol h
past and futufe are placed intoobjec-
l i v prosenl Thi s ki nd ol ti me has
littlg or no space; it is stationary and
wi thout movment, i t i s goi ng no-
whers. i t i s anti -Newtoni an. as wel l
as bi ng i nstant, and i s agai nsl l he
wheel s of the ti me-cl ock "
40 Smi thson "Ouasi -l nfi ni ti ss and the
Wani ng ot Space " The Wri ti ngs of
Robrt Smithson "At the turn of the
century a group ot colorlul French
artists banded together in order to
get l he j ump on l he bourgeoi s noti on
otprogress Thi sbohemi an brandol
progress gradually developed inlo
what is sometimes called the avant-
garde Both these notions of dura-
tion are no longer absolute mods of
' ti me' for ani sts The avant-garde,
like progress, is based on an ideo-
l ogi cal consci ousness ol ti me Ti me
as i deol ogy has produced many
uncenai n ' art hi stori es' wi th the hel o
of the mass medra Arthi stori es may
b measurod intimeby books (ygars),
by magazi nes (months). by newspa-
pers (weeks and days), by radi o and
ry (days and hours) And at the
gal l ery proper-.i nstants! Ti me i s
brought to a condilion thal breaks
down into "abstract objects' The
i sol ated ti me of l he avant-garde has
produced its own unavailable hrstory
or entropy," See al so ARTS Maga-
zi ne. Novembr, 1966
Lal er, i n "Ul tramoderne," (see
Wri ti ngs and al so ARTS Magazi ne,
September/October, 1967), he ex-
pl ores hi sgrowi ng awareness of ti me
f urther "There are two typesol time,"
he wrote, "organi c (Modrni st) ard
cr yst al i ne ( Ul t r ai st ) , Wi l hi n t he
boundari ss ol l he l hi ni es. that mul ti -
l acel ed segment of l i me, we di s-
cover pr emoni t i ons, l abyr i nt hs,
cycles, and repetitionsthal lead us to
a concrete area ot the i nti nrte The
' shap of ti me,' when i t coms l o the
Ul tramoderne. i s ci rcul ar and unend.
i ng--a ci l cl e ot ci rcl s that i s mads ol
"l i nsar i ncal cul abl es' and "i nteri or
distances' The Ultramodrne outs
one in contacl with vast distances.
wilh the everreceding square spi-
rals, il projects one into mirrored
surl aces or i nl o ascendi ng and de-
scending stats ol lucidily Walls,
rooms and wi ndows take on a veni gi .
nous i mmobi l i t y- - Ti me engul l s
space
"
Smi thson ' A Sedi mentati on of the
Mi nd: Earth Prol scts " The Wri ti ngs
ol Robert Smithson " Steel is a
hard, l ough mstal , suggsti ng tho
per manence ol t echnol ogi cal
val ues Yel , the more I l hi nk aboul
sleel itself, ctevoid ol the technologi-
cal relinements, lhe more /'ust be-
comes the lundamental property of
steel In the technological mind rusl
evokes a fear of disuse, inactivity,
entropy and ruin Why sleel is valued
over rust i s a technol ogi cal val ue, nol
an arl i sti c one " See al so Arttorum,
Septembr, 1968 Smi thson wri tes
that by
"excluding technological proc-
esses lrom the making ot arl (sculp-
ture), w9 begi n l o di scover other
processs of a more lundamental
order The breakup or f ragmentati on
of maner makes one aware ot the
sub-slrala of the Earth belore it is
overly relined by lhe induslry , I have
ol l en thought aboul non-resi stant
orocsses that woul d i nvol ve tho
actual sedi mentati on ot maner or
what I cal l ed' Pul verrzati ons' back i n
1 956 Oxi dati on, hydrati on, carboni -
zal i on, and sol uti on (ths maj or proc-
esses of rock and mi neral di si ntogra-
ti on) are l our methods l hat coul d be
t ur ned t owar d t he makr ng of
art Burnl -out ore or sl ag-l i ke .ust i s
as basic and primary as the matgrial
smelted from il Technological ideol-
ogy has no sense of trme other than
i ts i mmedi al e' suppl y and demand,'
and its laboratorissfunction as blind-
ers to lhe rest ol th world -
42 l n an i mportant i nl ervi ew shonl y
before hi s deal h i n 1973 wi th Al i son
Sky for On Slle, a short'lived publica-
lion dealing with Earlh Art and art-
i sts, Smi thson l ard out turl her hi s
vrews on enlropy and how il relaled
hrs art:
"On the whol e I woul d say entropy
contradi cts the usual noti on of a
mechani sti c worl d vi ew In other
words il's a conditron that's irrevers-
i bl e, i l ' s a condrl i on l hat' s movi ng
towards a gradual equi l i bri um and
it's suggested in many ways Per-
haos a ni ce succi nct deti nrtron of
ent r opy woul d be Humpt y
Dumpty One mi ght even say l he
current Watergats si tuati on i s an
exampl e ol entropy You have a
cl osed system whi ch evenl ual l y de-
l eri oral es and stans l o brsak apart
and there' s no way that you can
real l y prece rt back together agai n i l
we consi der earl h In terms of geo-
logic lime we end up with what w
cal l tl uvi al entropy Geol ogy has i ts
entropy too. where everyl hi ng i s
gradual l y weari ng down l t may be
that human bei ngs are j ust di tl erenl
l rom di nosaurs ral her than betl sr I
pr opose a dr al ect r c of ent r opi c
change Al Vestmann l sl ands an
enti re communi ty was submergd i n
black ashs ll created a kind of
buri ed house system l t was qui te
i nl eresti ngtorawhi l e You mi ghtsay
that provided a lemporary kind ol
buri ed archi tecture whi ch remi nds
me of my own Part a lly BurEd Wood-
shedout i n Knt Sl ate, Ohi o "
Smi thsonwentontosay: " There
rs an association with architecture
and economics, and ii sems that
archi teds bui l d i n (an) i sol ated, sel f-
41
qrntaind,
a-hislorical way. Thsy
nsvef ssam to allow tof any kind ol
relationships outsid of lheir grand
plan. And this sems to b tru in
e@nomics too. Economics segrns
lo be isolatd and sfi-contained ard
conoeivd of as cycls, so as to
exclrr& lhe whd sntrodc p{ocss . I
don't think things go in cfclos. I think
things
iust chang lrom one situation
to lhe noxt. Thsre's really no retum.
43. Alloway, Lawrenc 'Site Inspoc-
lion,' Attforum, February 1976,
pp. 49.55
44. Holt. lettsr to o|ds.
45 Tyrroll intMew.
17
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