Earth, sandstone, granite, concrete, bronze and stainless steel
Movement
Land art, conceptual art
Dimensions
11 stories tall, 0.1 mile wide
Owner
Land Light Foundation
Website
www.landlightfoundation.org
Charles Ross, Star Axis. Looking north up the Star Tunnel; earth, sandstone, granite, concrete, bronze, stainless steel; 11 stories high, 0.1 mile wide; (1971–in progress).
Star Axis is an earthwork built by American sculptor Charles Ross to observe the stars, which is considered to be a defining example of land art.[1][2][3] The roughly eleven-story architectonic sculpture and naked-eye observatory is situated on a mesa in the eastern plains of the New Mexico desert.[4][5] It incorporates five main elements that include apertures framing several earth-to-star alignments, which allow a visitor to experience them in human scale.[6][7][8] Ross conceived the project in 1971, began construction in 1976, and as of fall 2022, had targeted 2025 for its completion.[9][10][3] Art historian Thomas McEvilley places the work in the lineage of monuments of archaeoastronomy such as the Great Pyramids, Stonehenge, El Caracol, Chichen Itza and the 15th-century Ulugh Beg Observatory.[11] Curator and writer Klaus Ottmann has described Star Axis as "a summary of Ross's lifelong pursuit of the dynamics of human interaction with light and the cosmos."[4]
^Hass, Nancy. "What Happens When a Single Art Project Becomes a Decades-Long Obsession?," The New York Times, September 18, 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Needham, Alex. "Thunderbolts and time travel: my journey to the cosmic heart of land art," The Guardian, May 11, 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
^ abBeachy-Quick, Dan. "Cosmic Dancer: Dan Beachy-Quick on Charles Ross’s Star Axis," Artforum, October 28, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2022.
^ abOttmann, Klaus. "Lightness of Being: The Art of Charles Ross," Charles Ross: The Substance of Light, Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Hass, Nancy. "A Land Art Pioneer’s Adventures in Time and Space," The New York Times, July 21, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Karlin, Susan. "A Sculptor Works Up an Exposé of the Stars' Secrets," The New York Times, November 3, 2002. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
^Emerling, Susan. "Getting back to the land," Los Angeles Times, October 13, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Brenson, Michael. "The Landscape Maintains Its Hold on American Artists," The New York Times, March 9, 1986. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
^Larson, Kay. " New Landscapes In Art," The New York Times, May 13, 1979. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
^Plevin, Nancy. "'Earthwork' Aspires to Connect Man to Heavens," Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1991. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
^McEvilley, Thomas. "Charles Ross: Following the North Star," Charles Ross: The Substance of Light, Santa Fe, NM: Radius Books, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
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