Robert Smithson: Time Crystals
MUMA in association with Monash University Publishing
‘Then I looked closer.’ – Robert Smithson
‘Time Crystals’ is the first exhibition in Australia to showcase the works of American artist Robert Smithson (1938-1973), known for his radical land art of the 1960s and early 1970s. Its literary companion, a catalogue comprised of sketches, preparatory drawings, correspondence, photographs and hand-written manuscripts including misspellings, grammatical errors and redacted text, provides personal insight, deepened understanding and a new interpretation of Smithson’s practice. The development of his ideas on non-biological time and entropy, crystallography, science fiction, geography and geology – as well as redefining models of abstraction and challenging art history in his exploration of medium, location and expression – are explored in essays by Amelia Barikin, Chris McAuliffe and Stephen Melville.
