Island of Coal
Robert Smithson American
Not on view
Drawing directly onto the surface of a found photograph (still bearing its price tag), Smithson deposited a rough pile of black coal in the middle of a well manicured public park graced with picturesque vistas. In doing so, the artist undermined our complacent acceptance of antiseptic public spaces and, by extension, our consciousness: the ugly, but pertinent, processes and infinite span of geologic time.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
