Mirrored Ziggurat
Although best known for his Earthworks—site-specific interventions into the landscape—Smithson was broadly interested in natural phenomena and spatial manipulation. He spent his career articulating aesthetic forms that are experienced as coincident with the world at large. This pyramidal form inspired by Aztec architecture engages the surrounding space, physically involving the viewer whose perception of the work, and their reflection in it, alters as they move through the gallery. Fragmented reflections compress and multiply as light and shadows shift around the pyramid of stacked mirrors. This is not a static sculpture; rather, it appears differently in relationship to the position of the observer in the room so that no two people experience it in the same way.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mirrored Ziggurat
- Artist: Robert Smithson (American, Passaic, New Jersey 1938–1973 Amarillo, Texas)
- Date: 1966
- Medium: Mirrors
- Dimensions: overall: 11 in. × 25 1/2 in. × 25 1/2 in. (27.9 × 64.8 × 64.8 cm)
a: 1 in. × 25 1/2 in. × 25 1/2 in. (2.5 × 64.8 × 64.8 cm)
b: 1 1/2 × 23 1/2 × 23 1/2 in. (3.8 × 59.7 × 59.7 cm)
c: 1 1/2 × 20 1/2 × 20 1/2 in. (3.8 × 52.1 × 52.1 cm)
d: 3 1/2 × 17 1/2 × 17 1/2 in. (8.9 × 44.5 × 44.5 cm)
e: 3 1/2 × 10 1/2 × 10 1/2 in. (8.9 × 26.7 × 26.7 cm) - Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Gift of Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, 1986
- Object Number: 1986.272a-e
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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