Double Negative

  • Caption
    General View
Related person
Michael Heizer (was created by)
Date
1969, reworked 1970
Description
'Double Negative' consists of two cuts in the earth on a remote mesa in Nevada. It is 1,500 feet long, 50 feet deep, 30 feet wide. The cuts into facing slopes required blasting 240,000 tons of rock. Heizer and others chose to work outdoors as part of a movement that reflected 1960's art politics. It was a general reaction against the art object as commodity. Earthworks, or works in the land, were things that you couldn't purchase and were often ephemeral. Some earthworks, like "Double Negative," involved removing dirt to create sculptures out of the spaces left behind. Heizer calls these works "Un-sculpture" or "sculpture in reverse." Negation, duration and decay became part of a new sculptural vocabulary. Keywords: Earth Art, Land Art, void / mass, negative / positive relationship, desert, United States. Submitted by Kay Bea Jones.
Style/Period
1960s (1960 - 1969)
1970s (1970 - 1979)