Stone Ruin Tour I, June 1967. Cedar Grove, New Jersey
Power point projection
Collection of the artist
Stone Ruin Tour I consists of a scenic hike that Holt conducted for artists Robert Smithson and Joan Jonas in and around a dilapidated stone mansion in Cedar Grove. The tour survives in the form of photographs–many of them shot by Smithson–which Holt recently transformed into a PowerPoint presentation. Here we see not only the forest that long ago reclaimed portions of the mansion but also the latter's elaborate system of walls and staircases, many of them rendered dysfunctional by decay.
Although it mimicked a conventional sightseeing trip, Stone Ruin Tour I departs considerably from an ordinary tour. Before launching their trek through Cedar Grove, Holt gave Jonas and Smithson a script she had recorded and transcribed into type. Radically incomplete, Holt's script provides only the most basic details about location and direction. Its imperfection is deliberate: at the precise moment Holt relinquishes her authority, Jonas and Smithson become collaborators, free to digress and to lead.
Although it mimicked a conventional sightseeing trip, Stone Ruin Tour I departs considerably from an ordinary tour. Before launching their trek through Cedar Grove, Holt gave Jonas and Smithson a script she had recorded and transcribed into type. Radically incomplete, Holt's script provides only the most basic details about location and direction. Its imperfection is deliberate: at the precise moment Holt relinquishes her authority, Jonas and Smithson become collaborators, free to digress and to lead.