Heizer, Michael. Effigy Tumuli
Heizer, Michael. Effigy Tumuli
McGill, Douglas C.. Michael Heizer: Effigy Tumuli. The reemergence of ancient mound building. 1990, New York, Harry N. Abrams, square quarto, 131pages, hard cover, profusely illustrated with photographs and explanatory captions by Heizer, in fine condition $30
Effigy Tumuli<, dedicated in 1985, has been described by ARTnews as "the most ambitious outdoor sculpture since Mt. Rushmore was completed in 1941." It is the work of Michael Heizer, an artist who left New York for the deserts of the American West where, beginning in the late 1960s, he created monumental constructions out of the earth.
Effigy Tumuli is Heizer's first and only representational work. Commissioned in 1983 as part of an effort to reclaim 150 acres of strip-mined land on the Illinois River, Effigyh Tumuli consists of five earth sculptures, each as large as 1,000 feet long and 25 feet high, in the shapes of animals indigenous to the region.
Effigy mounds were first utilized by prehistoric Woodland Indians in the same region over a thousand years earlier. "These mounds," Heizer says, "are part of a global human dialogue of art, and I thought it would be worthwhile to reactivate that dialogue." Effigy Tumuli is a contemporary artwork that ties together themes of environmentalism, native American ethnography and animistic mysticism.
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