Emmen, Holland
Summer 1971
green water, white and yellow sand flats
diameter 140′
canal approximately 12′ wide
depth quarry lake 10 to 15
Spiral Hill, Broken Circle sketch
unedited 16mm takes Emmen, Holland
Google Earth Community for Robert Smithson’s Spiral Hill, Broken Circle a daytime photo is shown here
a collection of 16 photos on Flickr
An essay on Robert Smithson by David Maisel
That broken circle artwork looks like a corporate logo. Rather funny to imagine that Smithson would do a corporate logo.
spud took the words out of my mouth! I thought the same thing! It looks like some corporate logo.
“Green water”. I just walked over the Chicago River recalling the days I used to join in protest when the city would dye the river green on St. Patrick’s Day, Why? Because the dyes were toxic! As if the river wasn’t green enough to start! I still think the river is green, but at least when they dye the rivers in March they use environmentally “correct” dyes.
I wonder if Smithson got his “green water” from Chicago?
I gotta say I’m not impressed with “Broken Circle”. The proportions and symmetry seem to be wrong.
Mark, I bet you’re judging it based on slightly odd angle of the photo. I think the peninsula land portion at the top is the exact same size as the creek water portion at the bottom.
Maybe the dimensions are the same, but I still don’t find it visually appealing. There is no contrast, no pop, nothing that even makes it look technically sophisticated. Very Blah…