Smithson s Political Stance

In September of 1970, Artforum published the results of a poll under the title «The Artist and Politics: A Symposium.» It presented various proposals for political action for artists to undertake in order to deal with the «deepening political crisis in America.»[28] Essays by Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Walter Darby Bannard, Billy Al Bengston, Rosemarie Castoro, Rafael Ferrer, Donald Judd, Irving Petlin, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, and Lawrence Weiner appeared in alphabetic order.[29] In his answer, Smithson emphasizes ironic, individual statements; he refers to the religious, ritualistic character of political engagement and revolutionary violence, and plans apocalyptic scenarios of decay, anomie, and entropy the devilish inevitability with which politics, violence, and the destruction of the earth work together. His disillusioned tone bespeaks a supposedly conservative position. Later, Dan Graham spoke of Smithson s strategy of «inversion,» the rhetorical reverse of dominant humanist liberalism: «Bob was a politician, and he had an instinct for the political. So, if he was taking a right-wing position during the optimistic sixties that was a devil s advocate corrective.» [30] Smithson s political agenda was ambivalent: he began an exhaustive examination of the ecology movement,