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SUMMARY:Over the Horizon - Susanna Newbury
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UID:pretalx-spathum24-8VVN9H@pretalx.com
DESCRIPTION:Over the Horizon\nAbstract\nSusanna Newbury\, PhD\nAssociate P
 rofessor of Art History\nUniversity of Nevada\, Las Vegas (USA)\nsusanna.n
 ewbury@unlv.edu									\n\nOver the Horizon considers spatial dimensions 
 of intersections between contemporary art and security space in Nevada\, a
  strategically important state in the Western US. Beyond being the home of
  the internationally known Las Vegas Strip and its hospitality industry\, 
 Nevada is the center of two crucial government programs: experimental weap
 ons development and testing\, and nuclear waste storage. In a state where 
 over 80% of territory is public\, the majority of Nevada’s terrain is no
 netheless sequestered from public oversight in restricted space stretching
  from ground to air. This paper addresses how a work of video art\, Omer F
 ast’s 2011 5\,000’ Is the Best\, and a work of land art\, Michael Heiz
 er’s City (1970-2022) have both mediated and utilized Nevada’s special
  relation to national security infrastructure to shed light on the influen
 ce of place on cultural identity\, and on how cultural heritage is itself 
 strategically employed to protect and limit the exploitation of national r
 esources. In so doing\, it maps the politics of spatial use across art\, a
 rchitecture\, and planning in an unexpected and often overlooked corner of
  the United States.\n\nIsraeli-American artist Omer Fast (b. 1972 Jerusale
 m\, lives and works in Berlin)  debuted 5\,000’ Is Best at the 2011 Veni
 ce Biennale\, the premiere global stage for contemporary art. The 30-minut
 e\, multi-channel video work uses oral testimony and staged recreations of
  US military drone pilots’ experiences in the Afghan and Iraq wars to la
 y bare issues of complicity in participating in and witnessing military en
 gagement. Its title refers to an optimal altitude from which to successful
 ly strike a ground target in unmanned aerial combat. First regarded as a s
 harp critique of its engagement in the so-called “forever wars\,” 5\,0
 00 haunts the conclusion of US ground operations in those wars while previ
 ewing the remote-controlled present of spectacular conflict. Less well und
 erstood is the video’s relationship to Southern Nevada\, where it was no
 t only filmed but explicitly set\, both in the shadow of the Las Vegas Str
 ip and of two local Air Force Bases serving as central command for US over
 seas drone operations. Read through this lens\, 5\,000’ explores how Fas
 t’s video articulates such hauntings in the geography of the homefront\,
  its focus on the quotidian nature of surveillance states predicting its f
 uture. \n\nAmerican artist Michael Heizer\, (b. 1944 Berkeley\, CA\, lives
  and works in New York) is a pioneer of monumental sculpture engaging envi
 ronmental settings. Since 1970\, he has been at work on City\, a 1.25-mile
 -long complex of rammed earth structures in the desert basins north of Las
  Vegas. Kept secret during its construction\, City opened to a (limited) p
 ublic audience in 2022\, admission available through a lengthy wait list a
 dministered by the artist’s non-profit foundation. It sits cheek-by-jowl
  with two notorious US national security sites on Nevada public land: Area
  51\, a highly classified Air Force training and testing facility official
 ly acknowledged by the US government in 2013\, and Yucca Mountain\, a long
 -proposed storage site for US nuclear waste controversial on many levels. 
 Curiously\, City\, a then-hidden work of contemporary art\, became a linch
 pin in a mid-2000s campaign to prevent Yucca Mountain from being further d
 eveloped and protecting additional lands around Area 51. Its federal desig
 nation in 2015 as federally protected cultural heritage under the 1906 US 
 Antiquities Act effectively blocked transit of nuclear waste to the Yucca 
 Mountain site\, and brought an additional 700\,000 acres of land bordering
  classified security sites under government regulation and control.\n\nOve
 r the Horizon examines how these two works’ settings and execution creat
 e an opportunity to map contemporary art’s political impact over strateg
 ic\, and secretive\, geography. It also proposes a new methodology for und
 erstanding spatial humanities as a process of mapping discrete cultural wo
 rks to the complex physical and cultural landscapes that produced them. Go
 ing a step beyond articulating context dependency\, the paper argues that 
 such works of art actively shape the physical\, juridical\, and geostrateg
 ic space they depict\, modify\, and mediate in the shadow of public scruti
 ny.
LOCATION:MG1 00.04 Hörsaal
URL:https://pretalx.com/spathum24/talk/8VVN9H/
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