City, by Michael Heizer

Michael Heizer’s City, a project spanning over fifty years, recently opened to the public. Geological events spanning millions of years shaped the Nevada landscape where City stands today, from asteroid impacts to tectonic movements. This history is evident in the rugged terrain of Nevada's desert marked by mountains, canyons, and ridges.

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City itself, situated north of Las Vegas and east of San Francisco, is a mile-and-a-quarter rectangular cut into the desert, with dimensions of a fourth of a mile wide and thirty-four feet deep. Composed of locally-sourced materials, City features immaculate, undulating mounds of compacted dirt and angular concrete structures. The installation is laid into the rising eastern slope of a ridge, facing a mountain, creating a striking juxtaposition against the natural landscape. The area's iron oxide-rich soil gives the landscape a distinctive red-tan hue, visible from above. City stands as a testament to human creativity amidst the vastness of the desert, embodying decades of visionary artistic endeavour.

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