Essay by Dorothy Shinn

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his catalogue and exhibition on Robert Smithson's Parliaily BuriedWoodshed retlect the Gallery's long-term commitment to exhibrtrngand documenting the work of innovative twentielh cenlury artists TheGallery is especially Interesled in those artists and works that have aspecial connection to northeastern Ohio On January 22,1970, RobertSmithson donated lhe Partiaily Buried Woodshed to the School ol Artat Kent Slate University The work had just been created by Smithsonwho, along with a handful of students trom the School ot Art, rented abackhoe and piled 20 cartloads ol dirt on an abandoned woodsheduntil the center beam cracked. After an eventful history. the physicalremains ol lhe Woodshedwere removed in January 1984, I Theexhibition represents the support and collaboration of many individualsand organizalions First ol all, I gratefully acknowledge the support olthe Ohio Arts Council Additional support was provided by the ArtHistory Club and the Friends of the Gallery Dorothy Shinn served asguest curalor, and I am deeply indebted to her for her expertise,enthusiasm, and hard work lt has, in fact, been a great pleasureworking with her The ideas and knowledge of the material that Ms,Shinn contributed made the planning and organization ot this veryimportant project an enjoyable and exciting experience The advice ofAlex Gildzen, Brinsley Tyrrell. Mel Someroski. and Nancy Hot is greatlyappreciated I would also like to thank the Gallery statl - especiallyproiect designers Bruce Morrill and Steve Timbrook - for their hardwork and creative input I Without the lenders there would be noexhibilion Therefore I am gratetul to : The Akron Arl Museum; TheCleveland Museum ol Art: The Herbert F Johnson Museum ot ArlCornell University; The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Smithsonian Institulron: The John Weber Gallery, New York: theWexner Center for the Visual Arts, The Ohio State Universitv; andStanlord Aoseloff, Kent

Fred T. Smith, DirectorSchool of Art GallenesKent State University

ometime in the winter of 1984, thewood and stucco remains ol Par-ti a I I y B u r ied WoodsheddisappearedThe earth sculplure had been cre-ated in 1970 by Robert lrving smith-son (1938-1973), who along with ahandful of students from the KentState University School ot Arl, renteda backhoe and piled twenty cartloadsof dirt on an abandoned woodsheduntilthe center beam cracked Smith-son then named the work and gaveit to the Universily along with the ad-monit ion to al low i t to decaynaturally (1) I Smithson'smainpur-pose in making this work was lodemonstrate the idea ol entropy.But he was also interested in the ac-cumulation ot history, envisioning awork that would increase in meaningas it decreased in physical reality, awork lhat would gain in legend as it

diminished in existence. And Par-tially Bu ried Woodsheddid preciselylhat. From the momenl il was con-ceived, Ihe Woodshedcollected attiludes. events. actions and asso-

ciations, so that by the time it vanished lrom the earth, it had becomesynonymous with an artist, a movement, and an era I Smithson wasborn in Passaic, New Jersey, and died thirty-tive years later in a planecrash in Amarillo, Texas, while surveying his earth sculpture. AmarilloRamp, a last work that is in many respects a continuation of lhe ideaspresented in Padially Buried Woodshed In 1969-70 he had doneAsphalt Rundown in Rome, llaly, Concrete Pourlor the Chicago "Artby Telephone" exhibit, and Glue Pourin Vancouver Smithson, whohad agreed to come to Kent in January 1 970 for a week for $1 000, wasto be artist-in-residence. give lectures and critiques, and culminate hisweek-long activities with a mud pour, which would have been anextenuation of his most recent activities Bul in the frigid cold of thatNortheast Ohio winter, mud would not pour: Smithson got the flu andretreated to the house of sculplure professor Brinsley Tyrrell. where he

made plans to return toNew York.(2) But, Tyrrel lsaid. the students wouldnot let hrm: "They cameout to the house and satabout on the living roomfloor and talked about whatelse they could do Well,

said Smithson, he had always liked the idea ol burying a building "(3)I How the Woodshed was chosen was partly a matler of chance,

partly olconvenience The shed, awood lath and stucco structure filledwith dirt, gravel and firewood, was part of an old farm acquired by theUniversity and al the time was located on an unused back lot ol the

(Smithson) envisloned

a work lhat would

lncreesg in meaning a3 il

decrcased in phyglcal

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campus, far away from the marn burldrngs As Tynell recalled, "One ofthe students got permission tor that buildrng Smithson didn't like all olthe wood in there so we carted mosl ol rt oul We spent all day cartingwood out .lt was a miserable job He sal around and did drawings olhow the earth was going to go " (4) I Alex Grldzen professor o{ libraryadministrat ion, was among the wrlnesses, t roeztng, but tasctnatedwrth what was happening ''l remerrber standrng by a fire whileSmithson, sketchbook in hand. explarned wrlh gestures to local con.tractor Rich Helmling how to bury lhe Woodsltt}d l-he earlh had beenlrucked there from a construction stlc on ilnother part ol campusSmithson took pictures of the process wrlh i ln Instamat ic and in-structed University photographer Doug Moore who also documentedthe site's construction. to try to avord photoqraphing people, just theshed and earth and backhoe " (5) I Tht: r:arth was prled on the Wood-shed unt i l the center beam cracked For Snrr lhson the cracking ol thebeam was crucial to the concept ol the prr)cc tor it symbolized thebeginning of the process ol entropy wltrch lrr: cornpared to HumptyDumpty: "A closed system which evenlu.rlly dr)tenorales and starts tobreak apart and there's no way that you roirlly prece rt back togetheragain " I Entropy is a concepl thal h i rs rrr ; rnr l t . ,sted r tsel f in many otSmithson's works He believed that not only were the processes olcreatron rmportant, but also the processes th() prece experrenced aflerthe creatrng was complete These proccssos he cal led entropy, thegradual dissolution and decay ol organrc matter Smithson sawentropy aS part ot an ongoing dialeclrc belwoon accepted, but tor himintolerable notions aboul the permanencc lrxily and preciousness olart as obiect (6) I At that time not only lhese rrolrons but the conceptot the gallery System itself were under Intense debate In the arl worldThe building ol art works in remote locatrons or lhe Intlratton ol unique,temporary art works were some of the new approaches to art makingsparked by these discussions Michael Herzer was one of the tirstart ists to br ing the gal lery. as i l were, to the landscape In 1968 he

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created a Series of excavations inMassacre Dry Lake, Nevada, calledNine Nevada Depressions. Thiswork. now deteriorated. can beseen most easily in photographicdocumentation Smithson and hiswite, artist and filmmaker NancyHolt, loined Heizer in Nevada thatsummer and Holt took pictures ofSmithson digging a trench tor /so-lated Mass/Ckcumfrer, the ninth olthedepressions. I Smithson hadbeen experimenting with serialsculpture of progressively increas-ing size. such as the illusionisticP/unge (1966) and lhe Alogonseries, when he began to make theshitt to working with large ouldoorsites The first of these was Pro-posals lot lhe Dailas-Fort WotthRegional Airport (1966), never re-alized. The most signilicant ofthem was Partially Buried Wood-shed, lot it marked the beginningof outdoor works on a grand scale.(7) I Smithson had been work-ing in the actual landscape for twoyears when he began making ex-cursions to "urban, industrial andquarry siles in New Jersey, manyof 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 NonsltesThese involved traveling to a particular location, mapping the locationwith aerial maps, collecting material kom the site and placing it inpainted metal bins He exhibiled lhe bins along with maps ol the area,so that the non-site (the bins) actually and conceptually would reflectthe site (maps) I Later, Smithson played further on the concept ofsite displacement and reflection'.the actual and the conceptual--through the use of mirrors He wrote: "l'm using a mirror because themirror 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 themirror of the concept Here the stte/non-site becomes encompassedby mirror as a concepl--mtrroring, the mirror being a dialectic Themirror is a displacement, as an abstraction absorbing. reflecting thesite in a very physical way lt's anolher level of process thal l'mexploring A difterent method of containment." (8) I Smithson alsoused mirrors in the landscape to etfecl an onsite displacement as itwere The most notable of these mirror displacements occurred in tn-cidents ol Mirror Travel in the Yucatan, published in Ailorum inSeplember 1969 Smithson took a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula anddocumented a series of nine mirror displacements through photo.graphs and an essay The published article is considered a work ol artSeen as one of Smithson's most complex pieces, it combines imagery,narration, art history, and criticism I Wtrite in lhe Yucalan, Smithsonstayed at the Hotel Palenque, a run-down establishment in simultane-ous states ol ruin and renewal The hotelwas being rebuilt. but insteadof being leveled at once, as we would do it in the U,S., it was being torndown in some places,newly built in others The notion of slowdestruction and an archileclure that defies lunctionalism fascinatedSmithson, and he used his photographs as the basis ol a lecturedelivered to architecture students at the University ol Uiah in 1972(9) I These, then, were some of the ideas that had been fulminatingin 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 muddown a hillside I Tynell, lor one, had no idea that the Woodshedwould become a major work of art. "lt was like this," said Tyrrell "Youbring a visiling artist in and have him do his thing. When he did it, wesaid to ourselves. 'let's try to keep this going for a while,' But I don'tbelieve we thought it was going to get terribly imporlanl. lt shocks mewhen I see a whole wall ol photographs in some museum devoted toSmithson: some ot them were original pholographs ol Woodshed andsome were later " (10) I Even though no one thought the burying oflhe Woodshed would grow into anything greater, Smithson did onemore thing before he left Kent He gave the work a name and a valueof $10,000 On January 22, the date the work was completed, hesigned a statement, giving the work to the University (1 1 ) By doing thathe made it necessary lor Kenl to deal \with something that lvould bothbaflle and frustrale the University at almosl every turn. I For Tynell,assigning a dollar value tolhe Woodshedwas merely a tactic to keepthe University hom bulldozing over the piece afler the spring thaw: "ltwas given a $10.000 value because il we were going to try to preservethis thing, lhen we could argue money," said Tyrrell "l didn't want toargue aesthetics with the University So Smithson called Dwan (hisgallery at the time) and asked Dwan to give him a value And that wasthe 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 youcouldn'l talk about aeslhetics " (12) I On January 23 Smithsonreturned lo New York. In Aprilthat same year he built perhaps his mostlamous work, Spiral Jetty. at Rozel Point in the Greal Salt Lake, nearOgden. Utah At lhat same site. Smithson made use ot another wood-shed by spreading mica over the lloor of the building and on theadjoining concrete slab outside. Holt remembers the use of lhatwoodshed: she also recalledlhe Spnal Jeny Museum, a proiect never

realized: "He was going to build a litlle museun) near lhe Sgral Jetty,and that museum was going to be covered with earth " (13) I Smrth-son did make the classic film "fhe SpiralJetty, however, and he madeseveral proposals that year tor projecls thilt were never realized:Texas Overilow, Barge of Sulphur Floating lsland: To Travel AroundManhaftan tstand: and Boston Project Juggernaut (14) I WhileSmithson was otherwise engaged, Kent State Unrversity became thefocus of national atlention, when on May 4, 1970, lour students werekilled and nine others wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen dunng aprotest on lhe campus against the American invasion ol CambodiaThe campus was shut down, and the tragedy domrnated the headhneshere and abroad for weeks and months to come (1 5) I Holt recalledthe shoot ings v iv id ly: " l th ink one of the most shockrng things. when

I look back, were the Kent shootings lt shocked me more than thepresident getting assassinated I think it changed everyone's mind,even those who were conservative. So many people just switchedtheir beliefs overnight afler that. Everything just became very, veryclear." (16) I Sometime during the period when the University wasclosed (Gildzen believes it was in July, six months after Smithson left),someone painted in bold white letlers on lhe woodshed"May 4 Kent70 " Thus, the piece which had already undergone some controversybecame 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 obviouslyrecognized the parallel. Piling the earth until lhe central beam cracked,as though the whole government, the whole county were crackingReally, we had a revolution then lt was the end of one society and thebeginning ol the nexl." This view of the work rellects the samesentiments voiced in a 1 975 lener f rom Holt to Gildzen in which she saidshe believed lhe Woodshed lo be "intrinsically political" and thatSmithson himsell had seen the work as ''prophetic" (18) I Had it notbeen tor those few strokes of white oaint. one wonders if the Woodshedmight not have been left to rot in relative quiet Even Gildzen, whonormally 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 thepiece's preservation " (1 9) I For about two years while the Universitywas othen,ise occupied in rebuilding its shatlered reputation, theWoodshed enioyed a brief peace Then, in 1973 Smithson died in anairplane crash while on an aerial observation f light lor the tinal planningstages 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'sdeath, gallery owner John W Weber, representing Nancy Holt, wroteGif dzen, asking about the state of the Woodshed and wondering if "the

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school rs informed ol the consrderable In lnnsrc value of the work "

Weber also to ld Gi ldzen that when 'Bob made the piece. the of lg inalidea was that i t be al lowed to 'go back lo lhe land , however. MrsSmithson feels that because the orece rs an Inroor lant work, i t shouldbe preserved and taken care ol " Grldzen lorwarded a copy ol Weber'slet ter to lhen Universi ty president Glen A Olds (21) I Four monthslater Olds. ant ic ipat ing the deadhne lor sonre landscaprng lo begin inthat area and not knowing lhe Unrversr ly 's conrmi lnrent to lhe sculp-ture, had asked Universrty archrtecl Gtre Russo lo prepare plans lorlandscaprng the area Thrs plan cal led lor l l re ( : l r rnrnalron ol the Smith 'son earthwork and raised an uproar anronq lh() , l r t school facul ty Theproblem was resolved by the 15 merr lb()r lJnrversrty Arts Commission(UAC). which. to the reliel ol lhe Woodshedsuooorters, voted to save it lt would bc a shorll ived relrel however, and f rom thrs pornt onwi l rdlhe Woodsheds accumulalion ol hrstory ittoral ly caught f i re I On March 28, 1975 durrnqthe Universi ty 's spnng break, someone burncdthe structure, actual ly destroyrng most ol lh( :left half ot the shed. where the logs had bccnstored, but spar ing the s igni f icant r ight t ra l lwhere lhe earth had been pi led (22) Betwecnthe burned hal f of the shed and the undanlagedhal f . pol ice tound an empty, benl Pepsr c; tnwith a smal l amount ot kerosene in r t Al thougharson was suspected, no charges were everfr led (23) I Universi ty ot f ic ia ls wanled todemol ish the whole structure--both the burned let t hal t and the undam-aged r ight hal f - -because, they sard, nol only was r l no longer theor ig inalwork. i t had become unsafe and was a eyesore Hol t however,wrote a letter to Olds asking that the sculpture be saved She hadvisited the site shortly alter the fire and had decrded that even though

" The money thing was

always I geme lo con-

Yey ils imporlance to

poople lo whom you

couldn't talk aboul

ae3thellcs." Tyreil

the work was partially deslroyed, it should be allowed to remain in itsdamaged condition She made several suggeslion as to how thedamaged portions ol the shed might be reinforced and asked that shebe kept inlormed about the preservation of "this signiticanl art work "(24) Holt recalled that Olds wrote back "telling me the University wasgoing to keep the woodshed " But her suggestrons were never acteduDon lnstead. UAC recommended that the burned section andremaining roof be torn down and removed (25) I Meanwhile, debaleas to the merits of the Woodshedwere being broadcast in the campusnewspaper (26) lt was during this debate lhat a new lheme was de-veloped that would eventually lead to the wc, k's disappearance Thrswas 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 oflabeling whatever fell to the ground "debris"

:'> was established About the same time that' i ...i . - UAC voted to save the sculpture, the campus

' : t ' : . . . i t ' began to hear lrom a previously dormant'1 ' 't

'. i!+'- coirminee called rhe Commission on Cam--

: ' - j \ ' r ' pus Physical and Natural Environmenl

,-2 ' t r . . (CCPNE), which eventual ly urged that the

. Smithson work be destroyed. (27) I So Oldshad two proposals: To save lhe Woodshedand to tear il down And the groundskeepersalso had their jobs to do while olds was pon-

^ dering which recommendation to fol low,groundskeepers did what they are paid to do-

-cart away debris, including the charred remains of the left half ot theWoodshed. I The day the grounds crew arrived with its backhoe,Tyrrell, Gildzen, and acting direclor ol the School ot Art, RobertMorrow, went to the site and spent the day arguing which portions oflhe Woodshedcould be removed and which should rematn (28) While

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they were al the site defining whal was and was not debris, GalleryDirector Mel Someroski was on the phone to University administratorsdefining their legal obligations to the work Their eftorts saved theunburned halt from the bulldozer's bucket and provided a lew onlook-ers with momentos Gildzen managed to collect a relic from the burnedleft half. a charred piece of siding which he gave to the University'sSpecial Collections. I That was 1975 Atler that the commorron sur-rounding the Woodshed seemed to subside, and it was lett for a whileto seek its own destiny But the University still wasn't pleased with thework There it was. a charred and crumbling shed partially engulled bya weed-intested mound ol dirt, sitting out in ihe middle ol an open fieldfacing Summit Street, which because it led to the new stadium hadbecome a new gateway to the campus From Summil it was easy tosee that on lhe broken lintel of the Woodshed, standing out bold andwhite. was the "May 4 Kent 70" gratliti, lt was one ot the first thingsvisiting alumni saw, and it disturbed them So the University came upwith a solution: They landscaped the site In reality the landscape wasa barricade--a dense clusler of last growing conifers, strategicallyplaced so as to block a clear view of the work from either Rhodes Roador Summit Streel One actually had to walk out to the site to seeit I And walk out to the site they did The place had become a kindol 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 waseilher resented or nearly forgotten Indeed, one ol the ironies ol thework is that rt usually has been betler known and appreciated else-where In 1980 a Kent State University professor told a class that thework had (thankfully) long ago been demolished (30) This startling, iferroneous, revelation prompted some students to investigate and thatsame winler make a pilgrimage to the spot to toast the still standing,though much diminished, work on its tenth anniversary (31) I Twomore 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 graduatestudent John Parcher look several photographs ol lhe Woodshed.Robert Beckman's photos were taken in the fall of 1982, and thelollowing winter Patrick Wilbraham used the Woodshed to meet therequirements of a photography class As these pictures show, thecracked cenler beam had already lallen down. and the sides werebeginning 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 cartedaway by Unrversrty groundskeepers dorng routine maintenance Thefact ol its disappearance was nol noticed until February 1984 But byreconstructing the events, we can surmise that in January 1984,lourteen years to the month alter Smithson piled dirt on the shed andcracked the center beam. the physical remarns of the Woodshedwereremoved (32) I The work. whrch had become part of the James AMichener Collection at the Kent State University School of Art, hadbeen given various values In 1970 Smithson's gal lery came up withthe figure $10,000 When the University Art School had the piecereevaluated lor insurance ourooses in 1981. rt was said to be worth$40,000 But John Weber of Weber Gallery, which had representedthe Smithson estate srnce the Sculotor's death. said, when told of theshed's disappearance, that the work had a value of $250,000 (33)Some have wondered il the work is worth anything now, because allthats left of the sculptufe is the mound of earth, the foundation of theshed, the memory of lhe work, and these photographs I For some,that puts Smithson and several of his works in the conceptual arlcategory, but that not only misrepresenls the history of the work butdisregards the artisl's point of view. For Smithson was very muchagainst conceptual arl as several of his published wrilings attest.Indeed, all of Smithson's works, even the unrealized proposals, weremeant to be actual, not conceptual I During the last five years of hislife Smithson had been at the vanouard of an art movement known as

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those lew slrokes of

whrte paint one

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have been le(t to rot in

relative quiet.

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Earth Art. a form that grew out of the Minimalisl movemenl ol the late1960s The Minimalists changed the basic nalure ol three-dimensionalart according to sculptor Robert Morris, "kom particular forms to waysof orderrng, to methods of production. and finally to perceptual rele-vance " Or lrom object'oriented arl to systems-onented art; tromthings to the way things are done (43) I The growth of Earth Art komMinimalism was progressive rather than radical Smithson and others,notably Morns Heizer. and Walter de Maria, gradually shifted theirfocus trom the art makrng-systems to a more literal use of material andthe processes themselves (35) I In many of his works, and certainlyln his last ones--Parlially Buried Woodshed. Spiral Jetty. BrokenCircle Spiral Hillrn Emmen, Holland. and Amarillo Ramp-both the useof spirals and the process ol entropy were of prime importance, and inSmithson's mind the two ideas fed one upon the other I The idea otthe spiral had been used in his work almost from the beginning (36)The mounC ol earth that Smithson used for Partially Buried Woodshedwas not casually placed: it formed a climbing, curved ramp shape,hinting at a spiral According to Robert Swick. a friend ol Smithson'sand the student responsible lor bringing hrm to Kenl: "he (Smithson)made drawrngs beforehand of exactly how it was going to be, and theearlh 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 inall its aspects was extremely important to Smithson throughout his lifeas a art ist As early as'1964. in an unpublished proposal lor a work.tilled The Elminalor Smithson revealed this Interest He described thework as "a clock that doesn't keep time but loses it The intervalsbetween the t lashes of neon are'void intervals'or what George Kublercalls 'the rupture between past and luture' fhe Eliminator o(dercnegative time as it avoids histoncal space " (38) I But the krnd of timeSmithson most wanted to represenl was not our conlemporary senseof t ime, but a orimordral t ime--t ime that t lows In buried streams. that

t1lI((

Tr ury*',&;;', &,m.ifr*

) -t '

h wes on6 of lhe

tirsl lhlngs vl3lilng

alumni saw, and il

disturbed lhem.

shi t ls in geologrc measures and wears Inglacral cycles not measured incrementally nor kept by clocks (39) I Smrlh.son was keenly aware ot lhe many vissr-tudes of t ime, and hrs rumtnat ions on thesubject eventually led hrm to the devel-opment of a theorelrcal base tor his artthat he cal led entropy (40) l t was, to puti t mi ld ly, a phr losophy opposed lo themechanist ic, t rme cor lquenng view of theworld and ant i thetrcal to nottons of pre-ciousness and rmmutabrhty automal ical lygiven to anythrng cal led art (41) Thisview of art would put Smrthson at oddswi lh t radi t ronal notrons nol only ot ar tmaking, but arl buyrng and preservalionl l iS a v iew that fhes In lhe face ol theconcepts ol museunls. gal ler ies, and ar l 'as-commodity (42) I In vrew ot Smith-son's strong involvemenl wrth entropyand his ironical view ol technology, Par-ti al ly Buried W oodshedbecomes increas-ingly important as a manrlestat ion ol h isphilosophy lls creation and decay servenol only to recognize In the most con-crele way time's succesive conditions,but to make clear Smithson's ongoingsculptural concern with the problematicnature of torm-- not its mystique, but itsmutability For smithson "allowed forseasonal vanatrons in the state of hts

sculptures He assumed multiple states,not just one " (43) I And in a very realsense. those states continue to multi-ply, the organization of this exhibit andwriting ot this catalog being among themThus, in many ways the work conlrnuesto exrst For just as Panially BuriedWoodshed was a "seminal work whichhas influenced much other art." it is alsoa work ot many parts, the disinlegrationof the wood-and stucco structure beingone I As Tyrrell noled: "All that he(Smithson) was concerned with wasthat il picked hislory up--thal it didn't getbuilt and bulldozed over And it's pickedup a preny good history while it stood,anyone who knew anything about artwanted to see it Every time we hadBlossom, we took visiting arlists overthere and showed il to them, like a pil-grimage lt's one ol the most intluentialthings in contemporary art." (45) I Thespecial leature ol Paniaily Buried Wood-shedwas the notion ol a breaking poinl,and somehow this leature permeatedits surroundings. lt became not only asculpture (and tor some a shrine), butan important symbol ol a period duringwhrch the morals and ethics of a Univer-sity, a state and even a nation werepushed beyond what they could bear

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lFor some the orocesses in i t i -ated in 1970 by the breaking ofthe center beam came to a con-clusion almosl exact ly fourteenyears later when the t inal fa l lenremains of Parila lly Buried Wood-sf,ed were carted away But formany olhers, mysel f included,even though the mortal remainsol lhe Woodshed have disap-peared because of t ime, the workof art lives on In soite of il

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Giklzen, Aler' Padially Eudedwooct-shed A Roberl Smithson Log " ArlsMagazine Sp€cial lssue: Rob€nSmirhson, May 1978. p 118

Tyrrell, Brinsley Interviewon March22, 19t!4

Tyrr€ll Intorview

Tyrrell int€rview

Gtdzsn. "Paftially Euried Wood-shet

Alloway, Lawrenco "Robert Smith-son's D€velopmenl " Artlorum. No-v€mber 1972 Pages 53-61 Al-loway notss that "entropy rs a loadedterm in Smithson's vocabulary llcustomaily means decreasing or-ganizalion and. along wilh that, lossof distinclivensss " But "Smithson'sappligs lho idea to tim€ Basrcally,Smithson's idea of entropy concernsnot only th€ dolerioralion of order,though h€ obs€rv€s il avidly, 'butrath€r the clash ol uncoordinal€dorders,' to quote a formulalion ofRudolph Arnh€im's' Se€ also Th€Wrilir€s of Robert Smithson, edNancl Holt, pp 189-195 New York:New York Univ€rsity Press, 1979Rob€rr Hobbs Rob€rt Smithson:Sculpture lthaca and London: Cor-n€ll Univsrsity Press, 1981, p 191,andOnsitef4 (Fall 1973, pp26.30,int€rview with Alison Sky

lbrd "there is a shitt in Smilhson'swork lo outdoor silss solely, larg€ inscale. andfre€dol significativebonds,which is marked by his Panially gut-

ied W@dshed. 1970. al K€nt StateUniversity, Ohio,. He had ak€adyused a truck in Asphalt Bundown lheyear b€fore, and now he used abackhoe on a lraclor lo pil€ dirl ontothe shed unti l the central b€amcracked The man-made (lhe struc-ture) and the inchoate (disorderedmasses ot soil) were broughtlogetherlo create a slress situatron Ths workwas linished when the beam broke,so that lhe timing of collapse is, in asense. the subi€ct landscape andits systems or ordering have beenfamiliar lo Smithson most ol his [fe,and their oresence can b€ lslt onevery levelol hisartandthinking Hers not building barriers around trag-ments of p€rsonalily or stylistic inno-vatron. as happened wilh a gooddeal ot arl In the'60s He does notattempt to fix reality in a perman€nllorm by means of art, but demon'strates a sustained and interlockedview of a permanent reality

"Rob€rt Hobbs Robert Smithson:Sculpture Pag€s 132-5

lbid Pages 164-5

Ty(ell interview

Smilhson's Deed. in his own hand-witing , giving Parr,a lly Buried Wood-sf,od to Kent state university De-oanmenl ol Arl

12 Tyrrell interview

13 Nancy Holl Intervrew on April 23.1 984

14 Hobbs, pp 241-43

15 AkronBeaconJournal May5 1970

16 Holt inlerview

'17 Gildzen. Alex Intervrew on Aonl 171 984

18 Hollinterview SeealsoHobbs,page191

19 Gildzen interview Holl agreed withGildzen's ass€ssment, bul lor olherreasons "The history ol the wood-shed really reflecls on a lor of lheoolitics and social b€havior and thethsori€s ol mainlenance and dan-ger," she said "Works of art tond tobs tocal points and centers of energythat other p€ople spin otl of, andlhal's b€cause works ot arl have noother reason lor existencs; they arenol lhere lor any funclional 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, July 7. 1975. p 6 See alsoGildzen,'Panially Euried Wood-shed."o 119

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1l

23 Kent State University Police CrimsReport, Case Report No 5-2300-Arson Firo at Vacant Field and Shsdat Summit St and Rhodes Rd " 28March, 1975 (2048 hrs )

24 Hott, Nancy Letter to Olds, 4 May1 975

25 Holl interview See also Bierman, p6. and Gildzen, 'Partially BuiledWoodshed." p 119-120

26 "Leners to lhe Edrtor " The OailyK6nl Stater,20 May 1975 See fac-simil€, p 3, App€ndix L

27 Brerman, p 6-7

28 Tyrrell interview See also Gildzen," Panally Buried Woodshed," p 120

29 Tyrrell interview

30 This is lhe recolleclion of th€ authotThe event occurred in a paintingclass

31 Nighswander, Marcy Photograph,Akron B€acon Journal, January 23.1980, Sec 8, p 1

32 Shinn, Oorolhy "KSU Woodsh€dDrsappears: Only Foundatlon, Pileof Drrt R€main " Akron BeaconJournal, February 25, 1984, Sec, CP 1,co 1-6, 'BichardE Dunn,KSUvice-Dresidenl ol business atlairs andlreasurer, said lhe universi ty

groundske€pers had inslruclions nolto remove any standrng slfucture althe sit€ "The only thing we havedone with il is to lake away the loosedebris that was around the oulsrde,'he said Thrs "loose debris'was re-moved, according lo hrs records, onApril 22. July 20. and October 25,1 983. andagarn on January 3, 1984 "

33 Shinn See also Keuhner. John C"Artful Vanrshrng Acl? 'ShedGone,

Valuedal $25.0O0 " Record Coufl€r.Kent'Ravenna, Ohio, Feb.uary 27,1984, DD 1 and I 1

34 Anderson,Wayne AmericanSculp-lure In Progress: 1930/1970 (Bos-ton: New York Graphic Sociely.1975), pp 239 259

35 One ol the earhest pieces to engagein lhe objectification ot syslems arelhe Alogonsculptures In'l966usingcontradiclory malhematical systgms.Smithson designed three groups ofslepped sculptures that he namedA/ogon Combinrng a linearequationlhal ordered each indrvidual unit anda quadratic equation thal orclered theunits as a group. Smilhson set up aconlradiclion lhat resulted in a subtlelension belwe€n th€ stalic consecu-tive grouprng of repealed torms landth€dynamic ordering ol space Theyapp€arlo rec€de to a vanFhing poinl,warping real space and making itse€m illusionislic

Smithson said ol this work: "thelille AlQgon comes Irom the Gr€ek

word which rsf€rs to th€ unnamo-abl€. and inational numb€r. Therewas ahflays a sense of o.d€ring, butI couldn'l really call il malhematrcalnotation, There was a conscious-ness ol geom€try lhal I worked fromin a kind ol intuitive way But it wasn'tin any way notational "

In anciont Grsok philosophy,Logos r€ferr€d to lhe logic behindth€ conlrolling principle in the uni-verse as w€ll as the g€nius manifestin creation But Smithson saw manyol man's etlorls to order and explainthe univers€ lhrough syslems of logicas absurdities--analogous to themedeival scholastic argumonl aboullhe numberof angels thatcoulddancson the head of a pin--syslems con-line and limit, rather that oxplain--conceal more lhan they r€veal.

Thus through thoir inort and staticqualilios, the Alogons manifest anabsufdity as well as a corrc€ptualentropy b€caus€,, in Smithson's vi€w,"thoy absorb tho viower's activ€ vi-sion and yi€ld nolhing in relurn €x-cept th€ir own emptiness' They'empty vision ol meaning; lh€y dullyapp€ar lo b€ logical but in lacl con-tlale logic, rend€ring il illogical andm€aningless' Hobbs, pp 66-70

36 Wh€n he lirst €xhibil€d at tho JswishMusoum in New York in 1966 in ashow callsd "Primary Slructurs," hiswork, shown with those of olhsrMinimalisls, seemd, as on€ criticpuls il, "eccentric, compared to lheprevalont notion of ths Minimalisl

sty'e smithson's adoplion ol th€spiral molif conlraslod strongly wilhths in€rl and s€lf-contained icons olMinimalism--th€ circl€, tnanglo, rec'tangle or square His spiral€d Mi,zotP rolotyp tot Ae d al An P rot&t, 1 967,lor exampl€, and ev€n bulkisr Gy-rostags of 1 968 appafenlly relaie loI g|h-century syslems ot logarilhmicexpansion, or to organic and cryslal-line growlh, or p€rhaps ev€n to thespiral as a tiophysical symbol of lifeits€lf Not unril lhs buikting of SpralJetu in 1g7O did smithson's usageb€com9 clear€r;tho spiral is relaledlo his nolions of enlropy and irr€versi-bilty A spiral vsc-lors ouhflard andsimul laneously shr ink inward--ashap€ that circuilously d€tines itsefby €ntwining space wiihoul sealing ilotl Oneentersth€ Spiral Jettyback-ward in time, b€aring to the letl,counte.clockwisg, and comss outlorward in lime, b€aring to lhe right,clockwiss" Coplans, John 'IheAmaiilo Ramp,' Atlilorum, April 1 974,Pp 37

37 Bierman

38 Smilhson, Rob€ltl.' The EliminatoL"1964 Th€Writingsol Rob€rtSmith-son, Ed by Nancy Holl, (Nsw York:New York University Pross, 1 979), p207

39 Smithson. 'Entropy and the NewMonumsnts." Th€ Writings ol RobertSmithson Also s€e A/t/orum, June,1966 He wrole that "lnslead ot

15

rl

16

causing us to rememb€r the pasl lik€the old monuments, the new monu-menls seem to cause us to forgel theluture Instead of b€ing mads ofnatural materials. such as marble.granite, or other kinds ol rock, thenew monuments are made of arlili.cial malerials, plastic, chrome, andelectric light They are nol built lotthe ag€s, but raiher againstthe agesThey are involved in a syslematicreduction ol time down to fractions ofseconds, ralher than in representingthe long spaces ol centuries Bolhpast and futufe are placed intoobjec-liv€ prosenl This kind ol time haslittlg or no space; it is stationary andwithout mov€ment, it is going no-whers. it is anti-Newtonian. as wellas b€ing instant, and is againsl lhewheels of the time-clock "

40 Smithson "Ouasi-lnfinitiss and theWaning ot Space " The Writings ofRob€rt Smithson "At the turn of thecentury a group ot colorlul Frenchartists banded together in order toget lhe jump on lhe bourgeois notionotprogress Thisbohemian brandolprogress gradually developed inlowhat is sometimes called the avant-garde Both these notions of dura-tion are no longer absolute mod€s of'time' for anists The avant-garde,like progress, is based on an ideo-logical consciousness ol time Timeas ideology has produced manyuncenain 'art histories'with the heloof the mass medra Arthistories mayb€ measurod intimeby books (ygars),

by magazines (months). by newspa-pers (weeks and days), by radio andry (days and hours) And at thegallery proper-.instants! Time isbrought to a condilion thal breaksdown into "abstract objects' Theisolated time of lhe avant-garde hasproduced its own unavailable hrstoryor entropy," See also ARTS Maga-zine. Novemb€r, 1966

Laler, in "Ultramoderne," (seeWritings and also ARTS Magazine,September/October, 1967), he ex-plores hisgrowing awareness of timef urther "There are two typesol time,"he wrote, "organic (Mod€rnist) ardcrystal ine (Ul t ra ist) , Wi lh in theboundariss ol lhe lhinies. that multi-laceled segment of lime, we dis-cover premonit ions, labyr inths,cycles, and repetitionsthal lead us toa concrete area ot the intinrte The'shap€ of time,'when it com€s lo theUltramoderne. is circular and unend.ing--a cilcle ot circl€s that is mads ol"linsar incalculables' and "interiordistances' The Ultramod€rne outsone in contacl with vast distances.wilh the everreceding square spi-rals, il projects one into mirroredsurlaces or inlo ascending and de-scending stat€s ol lucidily Walls,rooms and windows take on a venigi.nous immobi l i ty--Time engul lsspace "

Smithson 'A Sedimentation of theMind: Earth Prolscts " The Writingsol Robert Smithson " Steel is ahard, lough mstal, sugg€sting tho

permanence ol technologicalvalues Yel, the more I lhink aboulsleel itself, ctevoid ol the technologi-cal relinements, lhe more /'ust be-comes the lundamental property ofsteel In the technological mind ruslevokes a fear of disuse, inactivity,entropy and ruin Why sleel is valuedover rust is a technological value, nolan arlistic one " See also Arttorum,Septemb€r, 1968 Smithson writesthat by "excluding technological proc-esses lrom the making ot arl (sculp-ture), w9 begin lo discover otherprocess€s of a more lundamentalorder The breakup or f ragmentationof maner makes one aware ot thesub-slrala of the Earth belore it isoverly relined by lhe induslry , I haveollen thought aboul non-resistantoroc€sses that would involve thoactual sedimentation ot maner orwhat I called'Pulverrzations' back in1 956 Oxidation, hydration, carboni-zalion, and solution (ths major proc-esses of rock and mineral disintogra-tion) are lour methods lhat could beturned toward the makrng ofart Burnl-out ore or slag-like .ust isas basic and primary as the matgrialsmelted from il Technological ideol-ogy has no sense of trme other thanits immediale'supply and demand,'and its laboratorissfunction as blind-ers to lhe rest ol th€ world -

42 ln an important inlerview shonlybefore his dealh in 1973 with AlisonSky for On Slle, a short'lived publica-lion dealing with Earlh Art and art-

ists, Smithson lard out turlher hisvrews on enlropy and how il relaledhrs art:

"On the whole I would say entropycontradicts the usual notion of amechanistic world view In otherwords il's a conditron that's irrevers-ible, il 's a condrlion lhat's movingtowards a gradual equilibrium andit's suggested in many ways Per-haos a nice succinct detinrtron ofentropy would be HumptyDumpty One might even say lhecurrent Watergats situation is anexample ol entropy You have aclosed system which evenlually de-leriorales and stans lo brsak apartand there's no way that you canreally prece rt back together again ilwe consider earlh In terms of geo-logic lime we end up with what w€call tluvial entropy Geology has itsentropy too. where everylhing isgradually wearing down lt may bethat human beings are just ditlerenllrom dinosaurs ralher than betlsr Ipropose a dralectrc of entropicchange Al Vestmann lslands anentire community was submerg€d inblack ash€s ll created a kind ofburied house system lt was quiteinlerestingtorawhile You mightsaythat provided a lemporary kind olburied architecture which remindsme of my own Part a lly BurEd Wood-shedout in K€nt Slate, Ohio "

Smithsonwentontosay: " Therers an association with architectureand economics, and ii s€ems thatarchiteds build in (an) isolated, self-

41

qrntain€d, a-hislorical way. Thsynsvef ssam to allow tof any kind olrelationships outsid€ of lheir grandplan. And this s€ems to b€ tru€ ine@nomics too. Economics segrnslo be isolat€d and s€fi-contained ardconoeiv€d of as cycl€s, so as toexclrr& lhe whd€ sntrodc p{oc€ss . Idon't think things go in cfclos. I thinkthings iust chang€ lrom one situationto 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 int€Mew. 17

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