ON LOCATION. SITING ROBERT SMITSON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

ON LOCATION - Siting Robert Smithson and his Contemporaries (1938-1973)

In debates over the transition from modernism to postmodernism much is made of the shift from the autonomous art object to site-specific work. On Location: Siting Robert Smithson and his Contemporaries revives these debates by exploring the relationship between the site and the gallery space evident in the work of Robert Smithson and his peers.

In the 1960s, artists began to work directly with the exhibition space, creating temporary installations or challenging the physical limits of the gallery by transforming its architecture. Others moved beyond the gallery to work on city streets or in the countryside, whilst others still explored the mechanisms of the art world itself, investigating the publications and reproductions that frequently replaced the direct
experience of individual works. Robert Smithson engaged with all of these practices in different ways and, as a result, plays a pivotal role in these debates.

Published in conjunction with the On Location exhibition at University of East Anglia’s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, On Location: Siting Robert Smithson and his Contemporaries is a timely exploration of the
relationship between the art-object, the site and the exhibition space, presenting a robust contribution to one of the most important debates current in contemporary art.