Mount Rushmore

Paper Summary:

This paper explains the concept of site-specific art and proceeds to explain why Mount Rushmore is a perfect example of this concept. It looks at the history of its creation and the impact that it has had on the surrounding area.

From the Paper:

"However, Mount Rushmore also changed the environment. When it was begun, there was no road to the cliff face, so one had to be built. Taking six and a half years to complete, in intermittent work between 1927 and 1941, the project employed almost 400 local miners who "built roads, constructed buildings, ran the hoist house, generated power, took measurements, or sharpened thousands of bits for the pneumatic drills. Others set dynamite charges or completed delicate finishing work on the sculpture" (American National Park Network Web site). In short, the creation of Mount Rushmore interacted with the environment in substantial ways; in an environmental sense, it might be thought that these were not always complementary. ON the other hand, if one considers the environment to include cultural and societal components a well as physical, Mount Rushmore was a work of genius for its time. And, while it is regarded as something slightly laughable today, it remains, at the very least, a symbol Americans can mildly ridicule without too much fear of being politically incorrect (the pizza commercial), but one which still inspires awe when the kitsch component is gently shoved aside."

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