In early February of 1969 Willoughby Sharp asked 9 artists to use the Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art (now Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art) as a point of departure for their new way of conceptualizing and making work; one often inextricably tied to the material of the soil itself. In doing so Earth Art became the first exhibition at an American museum to engage with artworks that asked viewers to look beyond traditional art objects and the institutional frame and look instead to the frame of experience.
Celebrating the 50 year anniversary of this visionary exhibition, Site Work brings together 13 contemporary artists that represent a continuation of that dialogue. Working across mediums the pieces use sound, labor, duration, and gesture to evoke particular moments, processes, and landscapes that challenge our conception of being present in space. Site Work illustrates the persistence of questions about the discourse between art object, experience, and activism, especially as lenses for how we relate to, and occupy our environment in uncertain times.
Curated by Sophia Starling and Emma Ulen-Klees