1968

Red Sandstone Corner Piece

American, 1938 - 1973

In 1968 Robert Smithson began to create what he called "Nonsites"-indoor sculptures containing earth, rocks, or other organic materials. Smithson's Red Sandstone Corner Piece signals a critical engagement with the landscape--particularly that of the postindustrial area surrounding his hometown of Passaic, New Jersey--that would become the artist's hallmark. This work sets up a dialogue between the site from which the earth is drawn in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and the Nonsite of the gallery in which it is placed, confounding traditional boundaries between indoors and outdoors. The infinite mirror reflections of the sandstone and the surrounding room amplify the sense of displacement or disorientation created by the unexpected presentation of earth in an interior space.