Earth Putt-Putt Works
Sunday, July 1 - August 12, 2012
Opening Reception, Sunday, July 1, 2012, 12-4PM
In the mid-1960's, artists like Michael Heizer, Nancy Holt, and Robert Smithson retreated from the urban landscape and the climate of the commercial art world to various remote locations. Deeply off the grid, they began making monumental "Earthworks" or "Land Art" from natural materials and the earth itself. Feeling that art had become constricted by socio-institutional structures like museums and galleries, Smithson wrote that he was after "limits and boundaries which evade the rational order."
However noble its intentions, the Earthworks movement was nonetheless rife with problems and paradoxes. In many cases, these monumental sculptures were funded by the very systems the artists had hoped to leave behind. And as many hopeful pilgrims can attest, the remote locations of most Earthworks made them infinitely less accessible than city museums. Earthworks have certainly been the subject of numerous institutional exhibitions, but without the rocks and dirt, the shows have been limited to documentation and commodified ephemera—returning the works to what they initially rejected most.
In an effort to showcase a selection of the most important Earthworks of the 20th century in one place, Will Brown has created Earth Putt-Putt Works, an Earthworks-themed nine-hole mini-golf course within the gallery walls. EP/PW combines the egalitarian roots of one American pastime with the outsized ambitions of another, playfully immortalizing and trivializing them both. Likely against the wishes of our artist heroes, however, individual holes will be sold at auction to the highest bidders at the conclusion of the exhibition.
Play is $2-5/game on a sliding scale. Includes putter, ball, scorecard, and directions to all Earthworks represented.
Open hours are Sundays 12-4PM with the likely addition of Saturday and evening hours. Please check the website for updates. Open Wednesday, July 4, from 12-4PM.
Our dynamic snack bar will host a hot dog roller, serious candy assortments, and more.
Special thanks to Aaron Rodriquez and Justin Limoges, who moved mountains in the name of putt.
Works
Cadillac Ranch, by Ant Farm
Levitated Mass, by Michael Heizer
Lightning Field, by Water de Maria
Roden Crater, by James Turrell *
Spiral Jetty, by Robert Smithson
Stone Circle, by Richard Long
Sun Tunnels, by Nancy Holt
To Be Viewed From Mars, by Isamu Naguchi **
Wrapped Coast, by Christo and Jean-Claude
* Under construction in the Arizona desert for more than 30 years. Still unrealized.
** Proposal for unrealized sculpture.
Special Edition Book: "Round trip driving directions from Will Brown to each work represented in Earth Putt-Putt Works in alphabetical order." 27 pages. $2 B&W version, $3 color.
