Robert Smithson

The Making of Amarillo Ramp

The Making of Amarillo Ramp documents the construction of Robert Smithson's earthwork Amarillo Ramp. At age thirty-five, while photographing the site of the earthwork in progress, Smithson died in a small airplane accident, along with pilot Gale Ray Rogers and photographer Robert E. Curtin. After Smithson's passing, Nancy Holt, Richard Serra, and Tony Shafrazi completed Amarillo Ramp according to Smithson's specifications. This film documents the sounds and actions of the powerful machinery necessary to create an earthwork of this scale, while underscoring the human skill and personal relationships that were integral to the completion of the work.

Breaking Ground: Broken Circle/Spiral Hill

40 years after the completion of the work 'Broken Circle/Spiral Hill', the film that Robert Smithson was never able to finish due to his untimely death has been completed in collaboration between artist Nancy Holt and SKOR.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a document of a unique natural environment, a "home movie" of the artists' 1968 road trip, and an intimate view of three seminal figures in the earth art movement as they interact with the Western landscapes that are so central to their work.

Bob with Books

Shot on the roof of 799 Greenwich St., New York, Bob with Books is a short silent film by Nancy Holt on her husband, artist Robert Smithson, two years before he passed away.

Utah Sequences

The film explores the environment—manmade and natural—at Rozel Point on the north arm of Great Salt Lake. The film captures wood cabins, an amphibious vehicle, and remnants of oil drilling that have largely disappeared from the site today, but the tar seeps and salt-encrusted pelicans so present in this film remain a constant at the site.