On earth, a geo-fiction
On Earth is a geo-fiction artists’ publication plotted on the re-encounter of Thiago and Manuela Eichner at Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. In this environmental experience, we used our pilgrimage to the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Utah, to investigate Smithson’s mythical earthwork, considering the relationship between the physical experience and its documentation. We embraced a method of being moved—in the sense of inspiration and influence, as well as through space and time—while freely elaborating on it is limits and exploring the totality of that landscape as an open lab.
On earth, [68] p., Cover Paperback, Process Ink Jet Printed
Color, Edition Size - New York, NY, 2017
https://www.printedmatter.org
Creative Direction by Manuela & Thiago Eichner
Photography by Manuela Eichner
Photo Editing by Tiago Lima
Graphic Design by Thiago Eichner
Introduction by Mari Dumett
Essay by Thiago Eichner
Copy Editing by Rafael Martinez
A geo-fiction inspired by Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty
On earth is a geographic narrative plotted on the re-encounter of Thiago and Manuela Eichner at Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. The artists use their pilgrimage to investigate Smithson’s mythical earthwork, considering the relationship between the physical experience of the work and its documentation.
During seven days of immersive living practice in Rozel Point, west bay of the Great Salt Lake, the artists follow the footprints of Smithson’s writings and documents. They embrace a method of being moved – in the sense of inspiration and influence, as well as through space and time – while freely elaborating on it is limits and exploring the totality of that landscape as an open studio.
In this environmental experience, they aimed to also encounter the gateway between the Spiral Jetty as an imaginary and physical site, playing on Smithson’s dialectic of site/non-site. Looking to capture the objective brutality of that habitat as the (art historical?) forgotten component of that work of art, they were equipped within information constantly referred by Smithson – in both text and film components of what we know as Spiral Jetty – on the extreme natural conditions so characteristic of salt lakes (salars). It was these components that drove the artist’s attention to that environment and also dictated the shape of the work. In his own words, “At that point I was still not sure what shape my work of art would take… but in the end I would let the site determinate what I would build.”
As salt grew over their barefoot skin, and the weight of the sun drove them to craziness during many hours a day of work, it also transmuted the labor of art into images that resonate the contagious nature of color and light.
* On Earth was first presented to the public during a conversation (with the artists) at Printed Matter, NYC, on August 17, 2017