Three Earthworks - Double Negative, Sun Tunnels, Spiral Jetty

Over the last 6 months in 2021, I visited three major "earthworks" in the western United States, and I decided to document the experience as part of a personal project. The "earth works" or "earth art" movement started in the 1960s and inspired new ways to think about the earth and time and space and the nature of art and sculpture.

Each of these pieces has been an experience involving travel and interaction, and they prompt the creation of art (in this case, film and photography) around them.

Double Negative is the grandest of these works in scale, and the desert and the mesas and the mountains around it magnified its power.

All three of the works inspire both action and meditation as you interact with them.

A lot of people say they don't like "modern," and I appreciate that sentiment. Sometimes, I agree. But "Double Negative" is a powerful, masculine work that will — like the statue of Ozymandias — be around long after the artist has been forgotten.

What do you think? Have you visited any works like this?

For more information about "Spiral Jetty" and "Sun Tunnels," look up the Holt/Smithson Foundation's web site at:

"Double Negative" is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

"Mountain Dance," the music in the video, was licensed through Adobe Stock.

[giraffe]

What art could be more masculine than a work carved into the earth itself.

[briant]

Very cool! I didn't think I liked art and I definitely didn't understand art until I heard your comments on a podcast. Something along the lines of "most men don't like art because modern art doesn't like them." You went on to describe the direction artists have gone for some time and why art is the way it is today versus 2, 000 years ago. Now I look for art to decorate my home with and enjoy it.

[utgardkraft]

One of your best videos yet man! Solar!

[KevinElmoreArkansas]

Going beneath then assending from the Earth is always an enlightening experience, reminds me of Plato's Similie of The Cave.

[jeffe]

The video and music makes me feel like a bird soaring over the earth.

[Corenair]

I and four friends are going to meet on a isle off the Altantic Coast of France, called Ile de Ré, and I was Just Now thinking of building a small arch with a hole for offerings, so that we all could give to the gods by extanding our hand in the direction of dawn, and litterally watch our gifts disappear in the rising sun.

Those coincidences (a lovely word, coincidence) keep occuring. Com-insidere, to fall together in place.

[Pachelbel_PaperDarts]

This is so wonderfully artistic and evocative. I must say that it is just as mesmerising as the last scene of the actor, Massimo Girotti walking in the desert in Pasolini's masterpiece film, Theorem (1968).

[boerenkool]

and the choice of music complements the earthworks so well

[nikolapasic]

Please Jack Post more content on youtube

[hellhound]

This is amazing as well as your pictures from ig this has same vide

[UncleTravelingMatt]

The last great adventure for men is the outdoors. Untouched nature is the last true challenge, the last exiting or civilization. Even as simulated as it can seem, go into the territories of wolves, moose, or mountain lions and you’ll feel it.

[reicoll]

Jack Donovan, will be amazing to read a book from you dedicated only to Mythology and masculinity, please, include this topic in your projects. Greetings

[conormckeown]

Not a fan of the modernist stuff - but i am a fan of ancient earth works / burial sites etc in Ireland - maybe im looking at it wrong - motivations cant be to far

[nathanmiller]

Have you ever investigated the Serpent Mound in Ohio? An earthwork which has survived at least a millenium.

[HoldYourBreat]

Whose the fake operator Jack trained firearms with??? It isn’t Ian Steinbeck is it?

[sakthivelsenthilkumar]

Can a man from asian ethnicity follow your tribe

[HellenicWolf]

great production, but this is not art, since it has horrible form and lack geometry. its construction. not art.

[StillGamingTM]

Really love the cello classical kinda music here. Unfortunately, writing and creating music (or anything artsy for that matter) is for weaklings. This is just another reason why we should uplift the proper classical musical created in the distant past by great men such as Bach. Thanks to their sacrifices, we have all the beautiful music that we will ever need and none of us will ever have to become weaklings and create new music ever again