Presented by Land Art Lives, in collaboration with Land Art Contemporary, Land Arts of the American West, and Holt/Smithson Foundation
10 September 2025
6:00am to 1:00pm Mountain Time
8:00am to 3:00pm Eastern Time
2:00pm to 9:00pm Central European Time
We are proud to present the second edition of a special livestream conversation between two iconic earthworks by Robert Smithson: Spiral Jetty (1970) and Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971). Broadcasting live from first light at Spiral Jetty and concluding with last light at Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, this special digital event is a part of Land Art Lives, an on-going research project exploring the relevance of Land Art for our current times. Spiral Jetty arcs from the northeastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, near Rozel Point, into an increasingly long stretch of exposed lakebed, the shrinking edge of the waters reflecting the increasing desiccation of the site. Broken Circle/Spiral Hill is located in a former sand quarry within a landscape shaped by ice age geology.
The livestream will span two time zones, capturing the dynamic, ever-changing life of the earthworks. Land Art Lives will broadcast live from Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in the Netherlands, while Land Arts of the American West (Texas Tech University) will be live on site at Spiral Jetty in Utah. This will be available as a livestream on September 10, 2025 through the Land Art Lives website and directly broadcast at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, USA and Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts is the closest museum to Spiral Jetty, and the Kröller-Müller Museum the closet to Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. Both are important thinking partners in the sustained legacy of Robert Smithson’s art and ideas.
About the Earthworks
In 1970 the artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) created Spiral Jetty on the Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The earthwork is stewarded by Dia Art Foundation. Made from over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth collected from the site, Spiral Jetty stretches 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide in a counterclockwise spiral. The following year Smithson was invited to create an earthwork in the Netherlands for the recurring outdoor exhibition Sonsbeek by the curator Wim Beeren. Beside a working sand quarry in the province of Drenthe and cut into the side of a terminal moraine, Smithson created Broken Circle/Spiral Hill—his only extant earthwork outside of the United States.
Site/Nonsite
Robert Smithson was fascinated by the power of photography, film, and language to shape experience. Photographs and footage of both Spiral Jetty and Broken Circle/Spiral Hill have been the primary method for most people to experience these artworks, which can be difficult to access, and are located away from urban centers. Through his writings and artworks Smithson investigated this relationship between the physical site in the landscape and the mediated presentation of the work in the exhibition space. He referred to this dialogue between the site (an elsewhere) and the Nonsite (the here) as the Site/Nonsite dialectic. Smithson’s theory of Nonsites radically challenges the boundaries of sculpture to include all the theoretical spaces between artwork and its presentation. From Dawn till Dusk creates a digital space for an unprecedented encounter directly between these two earthworks, opening an opportunity to discuss how media shapes our understanding of sculpture and landscape across time.
About Robert Smithson
Robert Smithson (1938–1973) expanded what art could be and where it could be found. For over 50 years, Smithson’s writings, artworks, and ideas have influenced generations of artists and thinkers to consider site-specificity and land in relation to conceptual and minimalist practices. From his landmark earthworks to his “quasi-minimalist” sculptures, Nonsites, writings, proposals, collages, drawings, and radical rethinking of landscape, Smithson’s ideas remain relevant for our times. By investigating the conceptual and physical boundaries of knowledge, Smithson raised essential questions about our place in the world.
About Land Art Lives
Land Art Lives is an on-going program, organized by Kunstmuseum M. and Land Art Flevoland, investigating the relevance of land art in our present times. Exploring land art in the context of its history, its new manifestations, questions of impermanence, and the urgent ecological and social issues of today, Land Art Lives is committed to rethinking the idea of land art as large-scale, monumental works of art situated in the vast American desert and the Dutch Flevopolders.
About Land Arts of the American West
Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University is a transdisciplinary field program dedicated to expanding awareness of the intersection between human construction and the evolving nature of our planet. The program leverages immersive field experience in the desert southwest as a primary pedagogic agent to support research opening horizons of perception, probing depths of inquiry and advancing understanding of human actions shaping environments.
About Holt/Smithson Foundation
Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-1973) transformed the world of art and ideas. Holt/Smithson Foundation develops their distinctive creative legacies. Collaborating with artists, writers, thinkers, and institutions, Holt/Smithson Foundation realizes exhibitions, publishes books, initiates artist commissions, programs educational events, encourages research, and develops collections globally from its headquarters in New Mexico.
About Land Art Contemporary
The launch of Land Art Contemporary (LAC) coincided with the 40th anniversary of the creation of the work of art Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, produced by the American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973) in Emmen at the invitation of Sonsbeek buiten de Perken (Sonsbeek Beyond the Pale) in 1971. The work and ideas of Smithson to this day continue to be of major importance for the program of Land Art Contemporary. LAC focuses on presenting existing and new art projects and cultural heritage in the rural environment of Drenthe and beyond. Art projects in and about the landscape have the power to expand our ideas about this unique and varied landscape. LAC and Holt/Smithson Foundation are working towards a sustainable future for Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (www.brokencircle.nl).
Contributions to Land Arts directly and exclusively assist in program operations and student scholarships. Gifts can be made online directly to the Land Arts Fund through the Texas Tech University Office of Institutional Advancement web portal through the propel button below.
Gifts can also be made by mailing a check to Texas Tech University System, Financial Services, Box 45025, Lubbock, TX 79409-5025. Please indicate ‘Land Arts Fund, Huckabee College of Architecture‘ in the memo.
Any questions or interest in other support options can be directed to Shannon Ahern at Huckabee College of Architecture, Mail Stop 42091, Lubbock, Texas 79409, or via email at shannon.Ahern@ttu.edu and phone (856) 536-4469.