What is thought of when one hears the word monument? Is it grand, large, importance, sculpture? By definition monument is a noun that means a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a famous or notable person or event. However in Smithson’s article, “The Monuments of Passaic,” published in Art Forum in 1967, he explores types of monuments that are rather unexpected. Construction sights, rusty bridges, and parking lots are now places of importance, standing monuments in the city of Passaic, New Jersey. By placing importance on these overlooked and deserted places, Smithson makes the viewer question what exactly is a monument while mapping and recording urban spaces and sites that are so often ignored by the masses, yet are so important to the makeup of a city and urban space. These deserted places better depict the everyday life and history of humans than any monument could.
As you begin reading the article, the story recalls a bus trip that Smithson took to Passaic, New Jersey in which he photographed desolate places and locations. “The bus passed over the first monument. I pulled the buzzer-cord and got off at the corner of Union Avenue and River Drive” (70). These unassuming places, normally ruins of some type of architecture, are now regarded in glory as Smithson photographs the sites calling them monuments that “define the memory traces of an abandoned set of futures” (72). Nothing goes unnoticed with Smithson—used car lots become “new territory”, old sandboxes become “model deserts,” and idle machines become “mechanical dinosaurs stripped of their skin.” Smithson is trying to accurately record what, in this mind, should be considered monuments, what should be admired by the masses and revered as phenomenal.
But why? Why would Smithson go through the trouble of photographing a rusty sign, concrete abutments, and old pipes? How are these structures even important, yet alone worthy of being called monuments? To answer this question perhaps we should look at another definition of the word monument in which it means, “ any building, megalith, etc., surviving from a past age, and regarded as of historical or archaeological importance.” Smithson is taking this definition literally by addressing any building, megalith, etc. as monumental. By calling these sites monuments, Smithson makes the viewer question his or her definition of a monument. Why is this place memorable? What makes a monument important and what we should actually be regarding as important enough to be considered a monument? In the eyes of Smithson, these sites tell more about our future and past than do most traditional monuments in which one person or place is idolized. The past and the future cannot accurately be judged and discovered by remember the acts of just one person. The past and future can only be discovered and explored by remember how the everyday and how people lived and live their everyday life. Everyday life is about rusty pipes, abandoned lots, and old bridges. These objects reveal the everyday more than anything else because they reveal
By recoding these forgotten places in the city of Passaic, New Jersey, Smithson tries to question the definition of a monument. Why shouldn’t the abandoned lot and old construction ruins not be considered just as important as the Gateway Arch or Washington Monument? Things happened in the places as well, did they not? Through his art, Smithson is trying to draw attention to the everyday forgotten places that make up the country of the United States. They are everywhere, in county, city, and state yet no one seems to deem them important enough to give them a second look. Well in “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey” Smithson gives them the attention they deserve.
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