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Christo and Jeanne-Claude started planning Running Fence in 1972.  The project included much collaboration between ranchers, engineers, surveys, and county, state, and federal agencies.  The final exhibit lasted only two weeks.  Christo and Jeanne-Claude completely funded the entire project themselves through the sale of planning sketches, prints, and scale models; they took no sponsorship and charged no fee to the public.  

After the installation came down, no traced remained of the project which included a 18 foot high 24.5 mile long fence constructed of heavy nylon fabric hung between steel poles embedded in the ground.  The fence crossed 14 roads and the town of Valley ford in Sonoma and Marin counties in California.  All materials were donated to the ranchers after the exhibit. 

Sketches and Process photos

-Abby Laux

Dump trucks, a front loader, and a tractor were used to create this massive land art spiral that is about four football fields long on the edge of the Great Salt Lake.  It was created during a drought when water levels were low and has been completely covered during times when the water level has been high.   The shape of and the materials used in the work relate to the ecology and geology of this specific location.  Smithson planned to create an artwork that would eventually decay and was interested in science fiction and popular science.  Visitors can walk on the jetty. 

-Abby Laux

Kusama started sewing cylinder shaped pillows with polka dots.  She decided to exhibit the creations together to create a dreamlike experience.  However, because the labor became too intensive, she decided to add mirrors in order to create the illusion of a larger space.  Visitors are reflected in the mirrors causing them to become part of the fantasy landscapes, as Kusama demonstrates in these photos including herself.  

"My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings." - Yayoi Kusama

-Abby Laux

Dan Havel and Dean Ruck's Inversion consists of two houses with their pine siding stripped off and inverted into a tunnel through the houses. The buildings were Art League houses that were to be demolished for a new building to be made. Since the buildings were going to be demolished anyway, Havel and Ruck were invited to do whatever they wanted with the building. They decided to invert the inside of the house into a vortex, that was both eye-catching and allowed people to walk through. The piece was eventually demolished to make way for the new Art League building.

Kirsten Ashby

Alan Sonfist's Time Landscape is a replanted forest in the middle of the intersection of 2 streets in  Greenwich Village in New York City. The micro-forest is 45 by 200 ft. The plants used in the work were all native to New York and present before the colonization of New York back in the 1600's. The piece is meant to show New York before urbanization. Pedestrians are able to walk by and look at Sonfist's work at any time. After being made the work has come to spark conversation about what is and is not "natural". Time Landscape was walk made a landmark in 1998.

-Chaeli Vernon

 Soft Shuttlecock was made specifically for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.  Early drawings of the the art work show that it was a costume for a tightrope walker, so they could walk across the museums rotunda.  The final drawing was not much of a daring use of the space. The artists put soft feathers of the artwork over ramps, and hung them by cables from the skylight.  

Soft Shuttlecock deflates the museums structure, while amplifying the role as site for culture and learning, but also a place of fun and leisure.  

-Nathan H.

Soft Shuttlecock

http://doublenegative.tarasen.net/city

City is a momumental earthwork, in total measuring approximately a 1/4 mile in width and a 1-1/2 miles in length. This work is located in a remote desert in Nevada, and currently not open to the public. Michael Heizer started this in 1972, and yet the artwork still remains unfinished. Heizer quotes, "I'm building this work for later. I'm interested in making a work of art that will represent all the civilization to this point." To make this structure, Heizer is using rock, sand, and concrete, all mined and mixed at the cite of City. What inspited Heizer to make this, is Native American traditions of mound building, and ideas of Central, and South America, which he become fond of due to his father, a prominent anthropologist.

-Kannon Chase

After getting financial help from Virginia Dwan in 1969, Michael Heizer began this massive work of cutting out 240,000 tons of rhyolite and sandstone from cliffs, creating two trenches on the eastern edges of the Mormon Mesa. Since only a limited few could visit the site to see this Earthwork, Heizer documented the work in photographs and exhibited them at the Dwan Gallery in New York. 

Holzer's installation of these 9 vertical L.E.D. signboards, that are each more than 40 feet high, transmit aphorisms in Basque, Spanish, and English. These texts were developed over time and were first written for an AIDS fund-raising event. These writings evoke universal themes of intimacy, death, and loss. Some of the writing on them are, "I say your name." Another writing on one is "I save your clothes." Holzer was bring her art from the street to museum environments, and with this installation, she was trying to address the issues of the viability of public art, the consumption of art, and the conflation of the personal and political. 

-Carter Crews

Abedinirad's Revision is a pyramid of old-style televisions on a beach. The screens were taken out and replaced with mirrors. The televisions reflect the surrounding beach and the real world.  She is interested in the psychology of reflections, and the real reflections of the tv's draw a parallel to reality in television. The piece was made for the Lorne Sculpture Biennale 2018. 

Kirsten Ashby

We all know the feeling of embarrassment that's not in our control; Parent-Teacher conferences, the Best Man speech at a wedding, that moment where someone across the street is waving at you and you wave back and it turns out they weren't waving at you, but a person behind you so you kinda have to play it off like you're swatting at a bug. Yeah, those instances.

 It triggers a kind of ostrich response in your brain which makes you want to bury your head in the ground until the present "danger" has passed. But this man takes it one step ahead and decides to bury his whole body in the ground!

All jokes aside, the artist shown makes a good point in this series, as time goes on, the art and artist deteriorates to a point where neither exist in the world. He does this by showing it on a local German TV broadcast for a few seconds of each photo until the man, nor the artwork, exist anymore.

-Stephen Mckeighen

Some, throughout their journey of life experience the void, pure nothingness nestled neatly into the psyche, and subconscious, of the human mind. Doug Wheeler, however, decided to create one and add acoustics to it!

 The room shown is basically an insane man's light bulb, the floor, the ceiling, and the walls are made using neon lights in an effort to give the space an unnatural glow as visitors walk through it, while also producing acoustics. I assume they pass through in order to tell HAL to open the pod-bay doors, but I'm not here to judge.

-Stephen Mckeighen 

De Maria's "The Lightning Field" consists of 400 stainless-steel poles that come off at a point, of which their average height is 20' 7". Due to their nail-like build, the 1 mile by 1 kilometer area looks like a giant bed of nails. The entire work is located in a secluded spot in Quemado, New Mexico, where you must book visits through the Dia Foundation (the commissioner of the piece) in order to view it.

Each pole functions as a conductor of sorts during the occasional electric storms in the desert. During the day, the towering poles reflect the light of the sun, giving them an almost technologically ethereal appearance. 

-Lola Pantoja

Andy creates his small scale earthworks by going out into nature with no tools except his hands.  He uses only the natural materials he encounters in nature to create an artwork and then documents his creation through photography.  He carefully arranges stones, branches, leaves, and ice into natural, organic forms.  

The short-lived lifespan of his creations is a major idea in his work; he compares the eventual decay of each artwork as part of the life cycle.  

In Icicle Star, Andy used his saliva to attach found icicles together.  Because of the delicate touch needed, Andy had to use his bare hands to build the work, meaning he was having to hold each icicle for an extended time until it melded with the sculpture.  

-Abby Laux

In this project, a representation of the sky and sun dominate the scene. Machines then spread mist across the scene, to create a cloudy sense. As the mist dissapears, mirrors and other devices are used to make you feel a sense of space.

This is a floating dock covered by 70,000 square meters of yellow fabric. People would walk onto the dock and reach a group of trees with a building. Some say it's the closest thing to walking on water. It truly is a great experience. 

            -Josey Cates

"My Bed"  made it's debut in 1998. it shows Emin's bed at the time of her traumatic emotional breakdown when she was 35. She says she no longer relates to the piece. it is ment to serve as a depiction of mental illness and reckless behavior.

Molly Watts

James Turrell creates works that question perception. "Skyspace I" consists of a square room with a large opening in the ceiling. The sky is visible. He uses white ceilings to intensify the use of light and how it shines through according to the sun rising and setting. The goal of Turrell's works are to persuade the viewer into "a state of self-reflexivity." He wants the viewer to almost see themselves viewing the work. 

-Chloe Brown 

-Kaci Mahan

-Tyler Burgdorf

Cornelia Parker request the British Army to explode a garden shed and use the surviving pieces to create the installations that also look like if it was held mid-explosion. The installations also used the work of one light-bulb to cast dramatic shadows on the gallery's walls. Cornelia Parker chose an 8' x 12' shed with windows that was constructed with wood from various old shades by a company in Suffolk. The objects that are made of the installation are from tools to children' toys.

-Danian Wright

-Jenna Cates

-Ralph Haines 

This is a large swirling, aluminum sculpture depicting hurricanes and tornados. These are stationed on a rooftop view from 52nd Street and 66th Street. The turbulence Series is shown inside and outside, which makes them only temporary. All of her work on the Turbulence Series has "white powder-coated aluminum". The Turbulence Series also described the weather being inside and outside, "the movement of the weather from out there to in here". -Alice Aycock 

-Lindsay Robbins

This installation was created with hundreds of illuminated drones for the fifth anniversary of Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The total amount of drones used for this installation is around 300 drones. The light from the drones, as they moved around the building, helped in magnifying the architecture to those visiting the building, and visiting guests could experience the lights for free. The installation was meant to last for four nights, but conflicts with the airspace and the authorities caused disruptions in the show, as well as drones knocking into each other and crashing. The purpose of the installation was to help bring art to the public for all to see and experience for themselves.

-Isabelle Peterson

ORB was made with polished chrome circles, ORB was displayed from October 27 to November 29.  The creator SpY was influenced by the cultural heritage of Ancient Egyptians.  The artist studied the mathematics and geometry of the Pyramids and also looked at symbols tied to the beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians while coming up with the idea of the creation. 

-Raeden Prow

This earthwork was made for establishment of temporal relationships. For this work to last it was taken by a camera so it's not possible to see it in real life because time took by. This artwork would leave the same question with all earth artist is it the relationship with humans have with the history, time, landscape, and natural processes.

-Lexis Taylor

"The Floating Piers" by Christo and Jeanne Claude was first imagined by Christo and Jeanne Claude in 1970. This artwork was Christo and Jeanne Claude's first large-scale project since "The Gates" in 2005. 

For just 16 days, June 18, through July 3, 2016, Lake Iseo in Italy was reinterpreted by Christo and Jeanne Claude. This work consists of over 1 million square feet of yellow fabric, which was carried by a modular floating dock system, which consisted of 220,000 polyethylene cubes. Visitors were able to walk on the fabric, as Christo wanted the viewer to know what it felt to walk on water. 

This whole project was in the works through 1970-2016 (46 years). 

After Jeanne Claude passed in 2009, Christo was pushed to make something the world has never seen before, and with this piece, he did just that. 

-Timothy J. Dennis 

 This Installation was created using fluorescent lights colors were used (pink, yellow, green, and blue). "His work occupied and revealed his interest in reconceptualizing sculpture in relation to space". His lifelong career used light, color, and space. I would say that the artwork has an aesthetic function to it. -Chelsey Allen

 Each of the sculptures that were made In this artwork were made from pH neutral materials to not hurt the environment. This was the first Installation to be put In the Mediterranean for an art gallery. Jason made this Instillation to show the beauties of the sea and hopes that the people who stop and see his artwork will take the safety of the sea seriously. 

-Maria Lindsey

Bought this area of land in Arizona in 1977. He was doing an aerial survey of his land and spotted this 600-foot-tall volcanic cone, which is dormant. He built his observatory there. Which led to the creation of tunnels, pathways, and apertures that are subterranean spaces which helped with the veiwng of the project.

• Emilie Eickelberger

Lorenzo Quinn is known as a sculptor, and this is one of his bigger installations/sculptures. Building Bridges is around 50 ft high, 60 ft wide, and has 6 pairs of hands touching in the middle over a canal of water. These statues are lit up with lights underneath the elbow bend close to the water, and are made out of white resin. They have been there since 2017 and were made because he believes that today it is necessary to "build bridges" which is to say, make connections, possibly deeper than surface level. He had a thought that humans could reach greater things, together. I believe the function is commentary due to this. Creating this work of art seemed to take a couple weeks and is still standing strong in Venice in 2025. 

-Destini Street

This room is lined with mirrors on all the walls, and darkened. In the center of the room there is a pool of water where a viewing platform protrudes, which is meant to resemble a boat. It also contains 150 lights hanging from the ceiling, and is meant to be viewed by only one person at a time. It was featured at the Toledo Museum of Art when it could still be viewed. Much of Kusama's work focuses on the depiction of the idea of an infinite space. The room is meant to be experienced in silence, and is meant to convey a feeling of calm and serenity. The whole purpose of the installation that would help viewers to experience a different reality. In her childhood Kasuma had hallucinations, so her goal became to try to create a hallucination-like experience for her viewers.

-Madalyn Cavazos

The artwork I chose was The Womb by Rebecca Louise Law. She had been exploring the idea of the cocoon through a series of paintings that depicted the Womb in many different stages. “I began to research my own motivation for creating art... Art and gardens influenced my life from a young age, yet when I was painting a flower, it was never large enough. I wanted my viewers to be completely enveloped by it.” - Rebecca Louise Law