Nonsite

Robert Smithson describes the nonsite as a visual metaphor representative of a paradox-the abstraction of a space serving as a signifier of the physical space itself. This same logic can also be applied to a photograph of a place, especially one such as the American West. The mythologizing of an entire region of a stolen country leads to place symbolizing idea and thought. Therefore, an image of the place itself is a reproduction which stands to represent a representation of something intangible and formless, therefore becoming abstract itself. Nonsite is also referential to the absence of place, not only in terms of physicality, but in the forced removal of significance through the destruction of authenticity. The photograph and it's ambiguity follows these diverging paths of logic to equally absurd conclusions.