Slant Piece

Slant Piece is a reconstruction of a work from Robert Smithson's Cayuga Salt Mine Project completed in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1968-69. Smithson conceived of the Cayuga project as a "Site/Nonsite" installation. Configurations of rock-salt and mirrors were simultaneous placed at the Cayuga Rock Salt Company quarry (the "Site"), and at Cornell University's Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art (the "Nonsite"). Eight mirrors were placed on site in the mine, and another eight along the trail that led from the mine to the gallery. An additional eight mirrors were placed in the museum gallery at equal intervals against the wall, with rock salt piled between and partly on top of the mirrors. Two larger mirrors surrounded by rock salt were placed in the center of the gallery. Although the original Mirror Displacement works (Smithson's term) from the Cayuga Salt Mine Project were destroyed, several unique reconstructions-including Slant Piece-were made under the direction of the John Weber Gallery in 1976. The pieces were reconstructed from Smithson's photographs, notes, and drawings from the project, and rock salt from the Cayuga salt mine was used. In a gallery setting, Slant Piece becomes a "nonsite" that absorbs, reflects, and displaces its surroundings.