Synopses & Reviews
Erin Hogan hit the road in her Volkswagen Jetta and headed west from Chicago in search ofand#160;the monuments of American land art: a salty coil of rocks, four hundred stainless steel poles, a gash in a mesa, four concrete tubes, and military sheds filled with cubes. Her journey took her through the states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. It also took her through the states of anxiety, drunkenness, disorientation, and heat exhaustion. Spiral Jetta is a chronicle of this journey.
A lapsed art historian and devoted urbanite, Hogan initially sought firsthand experience of the monumental earthworks of the 1970s and the 1980sand#8212;Robert Smithsonand#8217;s Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holtand#8217;s Sun Tunnels, Walter De Mariaand#8217;s Lightning Field, James Turrelland#8217;s Roden Crater, Michael Heizerand#8217;s Double Negative, and the contemporary art mecca of Marfa, Texas. Armed with spotty directions, no compass, and less-than-desert-appropriate clothing, she found most of what she was looking for and then some.
and#8220;I was never quite sure what Hogan was looking for when she set out . . . or indeed whether she found it. But I loved the ride. In Spiral Jetta, an unashamedly honest, slyly uproarious, ever-probing book, art doesnand#8217;t magically have the power to change lives, but it can, perhaps no less powerfully, change ways of seeing.and#8221;and#8212;Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times Book Review
and#8220;The reader emerges enlightened and even delighted. . . . Casually scrutinizing the artistic works . . . while gamely playing up her fish-out-of-water status, Hogan delivers an ingeniously engaging travelogue-cum-art history.and#8221;and#8212;Atlantic
and#8220;Smart and unexpectedly hilarious.and#8221;and#8212;Kevin Nance, Chicago Sun-Times
and#8220;One of the funniest and most entertaining road trips to be published in quite some time.and#8221;and#8212;June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune
and#8220;Hogan ruminates on how the work affects our sense of time, space, size, and scale. She is at her best when she reexamines the precepts of modernism in the changing light of New Mexico, and shows how the human body is meant to be a participant in these grand constructions.and#8221;and#8212;New Yorker
Review
and#8220;Across this marvelously unexpected little road saga, the stud muffin cowboys of late twentieth century American art at long last meet their sly gamine match.and#160; Pretty much doing for Land Art what Geoff Dyer did for D. H. Lawrence, Ms. Hogan, an urban fish decidedly out of water, flopping about in the high desert parch, makes for marvelously endearing company.and#160; An at times harrowingly (albeit comically) unreliable navigator (who doesn't bring a compass along on solo treks across such vast empty expanses?), Hogan nevertheless then manages to deploy an expertly modulated prose, tracking the heaviest of subjects with the lightest of touches, melding gravitas and whimsy (vodka and tonic), in a narrative that in the end, like the art it surveys, manages to be about what it is to be an individual aloneand#8212;pinprick-contingent, achingly vulnerable, gobsmacked enthralledand#8212;in the face of all that is.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Blending a humorous travelogue and serious musings, in
Spiral Jetta she winds her car and the reader through the complexities of 1970s earthworks and contemporary aesthetics via a varied landscape of people, places, and art. . . and#160;She is great at keeping the readerand#8217;s attention: two pages of art philosophy; ten pages of fun.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;I was never quite sure what Hogan was looking for when she set out . . . or indeed whether she found it. But I loved the ride. In Spiral Jetta, an unashamedly honest, slyly uproarious, ever-probing book, art doesnand#8217;t magically have the power to change lives, but it can, perhaps no less powerfully, change ways of seeing.and#8221;
Review
"I was never quite sure what Hogan was looking for when she set out . . . or indeed whether she found it. But I loved the ride. In Spiral Jetta, an unashamedly honest, slyly uproarious, ever-probing book, art doesn't magically have the power to change lives, but it can, perhaps no less powerfully, change ways of seeing."-Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times
Review
"Blending a humorous travelogue and serious musings, in Spiral Jetta she winds her car and the reader through the complexities of 1970s earthworks and contemporary aesthetics via a varied landscape of people, places, and art. . . She is great at keeping the reader's attention: two pages of art philosophy; ten pages of fun."
Review
"[An] engaging and sometimes hilarious account of a 'recovering art historian' facing an early midlife crisis. . . . Hogan eloquently discusses the sublime and the intimate . . . and she makes us feel as if we're right down in the trench with her."
Review
and#8220;The titleand#8217;s overly coy allusion to Robert Smithsonand#8217;s masterpiece doesnand#8217;t detract from a smart and winning book. Hogan, the public-affairs director at the Art Institute of Chicago, does her best to arrange an unhappy marriageand#8212;a land-art tour and#8216;through the states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texasand#8217; and and#8216;through the states of anxiety, drunkenness, disorientation, and heat exhaustionand#8217;and#8212;but the reader emerges enlightened and even delighted. After all, making critical theory fun is quite a feat. Casually scrutinizing the artistic works
Sun Tunnels,
Double Negative,
Roden Crater, and
Lightning Field while gamely playing up her fish-out-of-water status, Hogan delivers an ingeniously engaging travelogue-cum-art history.and#8221;
Review
"Hoganand#8217;s pilgrimage, sparsely illustrated, is part well-informed art historical travelogue and part light foray into self-discovery; her prose is lucid, energetic and expressive, and she is an affable guide."
Review
"Spiral Jetta is the perfect read for those who enjoy contemporary art but don't have an academic background in it, and it doubles as a fine Western road trip narrative. . . . A diverting, insightful look at the land art of the American West and the characters Hogan encountered along the way."
Review
"Hogan is a fine guide, evolking the dry, mostly desolate, Western landscape, while skilfully shaping her sensory experience of the artworks and her reactions to them into a nicely flowing narrative."
Review
"Hogan is funny and intellectually stimulating in her amazing summer art journey."
Synopsis
Erin Hogan hit the road in her Volkswagen Jetta and headed west from Chicago in search of the monuments of American land art: a salty coil of rocks, four hundred stainless-steel poles, a gash in a mesa, four concrete tubes, and military sheds filled with cubes. Her journey took her through the states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. It also took her through the states of anxiety, drunkenness, disorientation, and heat exhaustion. Spiral Jetta is a chronicle of this journey.
A lapsed art historian and devoted urbanite, Hogan initially sought firsthand experience of the monumental earthworks of the 1970s and the 1980s--Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels, Walter De Maria's Lightning Field, James Turrell's Roden Crater, Michael Heizer's Double Negative, and the contemporary art mecca of Marfa, Texas. Armed with spotty directions, no compass, and less-than-desert-appropriate clothing, she found most of what she was looking for and then some. Her encounters with these artworks are recorded here, personal observations lightly draped in art history and theory. But for Hogan this trip was also the most extended time she had spent alone, and her 3,000-mile circuit through the west became an experiment in solitude, with mixed results.
Spiral Jetta offers a view of a critical moment of twentieth-century American art. It also offers a view of the American landscape, seen through the windshield of a car streaming through the empty highways of the American West, piloted by a woman who had no real idea where she was going.
Synopsis
Erin Hogan hit the road in her Volkswagen Jetta and headed west from Chicago in search of the monuments of American land art: a salty coil of rocks, four hundred stainless steel poles, a gash in a mesa, four concrete tubes, and military sheds filled with cubes. Her journey took her through the states of Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. It also took her through the states of anxiety, drunkenness, disorientation, and heat exhaustion. Spiral Jetta is a chronicle of this journey. A lapsed art historian and devoted urbanite, Hogan initially sought firsthand experience of the monumental earthworks of the 1970s and the 1980s--Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels, Walter De Maria's Lightning Field, James Turrell's Roden Crater, Michael Heizer's Double Negative, and the contemporary art mecca of Marfa, Texas. Armed with spotty directions, no compass, and less-than-desert-appropriate clothing, she found most of what she was looking for and then some. I was never quite sure what Hogan was looking for when she set out . . . or indeed whether she found it. But I loved the ride. In Spiral Jetta, an unashamedly honest, slyly uproarious, ever-probing book, art doesn't magically have the power to change lives, but it can, perhaps no less powerfully, change ways of seeing.--Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times Book Review The reader emerges enlightened and even delighted. . . . Casually scrutinizing the artistic works . . . while gamely playing up her fish-out-of-water status, Hogan delivers an ingeniously engaging travelogue-cum-art history.--Atlantic Smart and unexpectedly hilarious.--Kevin Nance, Chicago Sun-Times One of the funniest and most entertaining road trips to be published in quite some time.--June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune Hogan ruminates on how the work affects our sense of time, space, size, and scale. She is at her best when she reexamines the precepts of modernism in the changing light of New Mexico, and shows how the human body is meant to be a participant in these grand constructions.--New Yorker
About the Author
Erin Hogan is director of public affairs at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Spiral Jetty
Chapter 2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Sun Tunnels
Chapter 3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Moab
Chapter 4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Double Negative
Chapter 5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Roden Crater
Chapter 6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Lightning Field
Chapter 7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Juand#225;rez
Chapter 8and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Marfa
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Doing the Pilgrimage
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;Readings and References