#michael heizer

"Complex One" (1972-1974) was the first structure built on the site of the eventual "City." Varnedoe paraphrased a quote from a 1984 catalog that includes an interview with Heizer, conducted by editor and curator Julia Brown. The quote (found online in this dissertation) is:

"It interested me to think about building Complex One on the edge of a nuclear test site in Nevada, and having the front wall be a blast shield. . . . Part of my art is based on an awareness that we live in a nuclear era. We're probably living at the end of civilization."

In the lecture Varnedoe says, "in fact its angle is designed to shield or deflect the power of a nuclear bomb." In the "Pictures of Nothing" book (edited after his death), the phrase is revised to "its angled front wall." Was Varnedoe referring to the angle of the wall, or to the orientation of the work in the landscape relative to a hypothetical nuclear blast? If both sides of "Complex One" are angled, which side is "front"? I assume this must be the side facing the eventual "City." If the keystone of "City," the first structure built, has a functional design, to be a blast shield against a nuclear detonation, is the orientation of "City" related to a specific location?

Michael Heizer's finished "City" as seen on Apple Maps satellite view. "Complex One" is the largest structure in the south east corner of the screengrab. Heizer's farm is north of "City."

I couldn’t find any writing on a specific nuclear site that "Complex One" was designed to shield a blast from. The most obvious locations would have been in the Nevada Test Site, a huge area about 70 miles to the south west of "City" where over 900 detonations (most underground) took place. One example is Sedan Crater, the largest human-made crater in the U.S., infamous for radioactive fallout, located 210 degrees southwest. A hypothetical blast from this location would hit the short side of "Complex One," not the angled walls. 

"Complex One" is oriented towards one test location: Faultless Test Site. About 59 miles away, it hosted a one-megaton detonation designed to evaluate the area to become the "Central Nevada Test Site." Ironically, the explosion 3,200 feet underground revealed geologically instability, triggering fault movements miles from the detonation. Windows shattered at a school 87 miles away. The site lies at a bearing of 314 degrees (northwest) from “Complex One,” and the line connecting them is nearly perpendicular (within about 8–9 degrees) to the work’s angled front wall.

screen grabs from distance tool showing straight line from Faultless through "City" site and detail of intersection with angled wall of "Complex One"

The single test at Faultless was on January 8, 1968 and after the faulty results further testing planned for the area was moved to Alaska. Two years later in 1970 Heizer flew over Garden Valley looking for large parcels to make work on the scale of "Double Negative." It's entirely possible on one of his survey flights he flew over Faultless. The land was purchased in 1972 with a loan from Virginia Dwan and "Complex One" was built between 1972-74. 

Faultless Test Site in 2013 by Kelly Michals. There's an eight-foot thick, steel lined column, capped with concrete, down to where the bomb was detonated.

Citing the fallout from the Sedan nuclear test and Faultless mini-earthquakes, Howard Hughes pressured the government to stop nuclear testing so close to Las Vegas, where he lived. Decades later, Heizer did everything in his power to stop a proposed train route north of Garden Valley transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain.

Nuclear war had been the great anxiety of US citizens from the time Heizer began working on the project in 1970, in the thick of the Cold War, to Varnedoe’s presentation in 2003, when terrorism had leap-frogged in the psyche. Today there are fewer nuclear warheads than before, but the codes are in the hands of far more erratic leaders.

When "City" opened to visitors in 2022, the press coverage skipped over its passé Cold War origins. Writers focused on what Varnedoe calls its "specifically archaic quality," evoking lost civilizations and pre-Colombian temples. Chichen Itza is the reference most often used, though it’s unclear if this is because of the actual site plan, or because so many art writers have visited as a side trip from Tulum. The emphasis was contextualizing "City" with timeless architecture which spans epochs, versus the narrow era of nuclear anxiety, which lasted roughly from the mid-1950s to early-1990s. 

Screen grab of NYTimes drone footage, showing human scale of "City"

New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman has had the most access to "City," stretching back to 1999 and the feature he did announcing its opening to visitors was the most extensive at over 3,000 words, with photos and drone footage. He leaned into vague mysticism. Despite his three long features over the previous 23 years, the headline was "It Was a Mystery in the Desert for 50 Years." He called "City" the "Art-world Atlantis" and wrote it "defies description." Despite the specificity Heizer gave "Complex One" in 1984, Kimmelman wrote the work "can bring to mind an immense mastaba or altar."

"City" reviews on Google Maps

"City" is surrounded by public land controlled by the BLM and part of the Basin and Range National Monument. Heizer went from suspecting the government tapping his phones about the Yucca Valley rail project to joining a lobbying group for the Monument that included a former Senator. He wore a white cowboy hat to the White House. You can visit these areas without reservations, with the caveat that you should take desert precautions and an appropriate vehicle. There's an easy hike that will take you to the top of a hill about 1.7 miles from "City." Bring your binoculars, leave the drone in the car.

Reading and links

You can see the line and zoom the map from Faultless Test Site to "Complex One" at Sun Earth Tools site with the two coordinates:

Faultless Site 38.63421826035995, -116.21622428611896

Complex One 38.028963107160806, -115.43561727866758

Faultless Test Site trip report Faultless Test Site visit with drone photographs, which look remarkably like Heizer’s early work “Circular surface, Planar displacement drawing” (which was done with a motorcycle).

Geology visit to Faultless Test Site

Flickr gallery 200 photos at Faultless Site by Kelly Michals and several historical photos

Kimmelman coverage of "City" in the New York Times: 1999 | 2005 | 2015 | 2022

2016 New Yorker profile

Dave Hickey refutes "defies description" with an extensive description of "City," in particular "Complex One." He notes the deepest point of "City" is 30 feet below grade, several writers have compared it to a bunker because of this aspect of its design.

Sample of official Triple Aught Foundation photos

Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photos of Heizer and “City”

1977 interview with Heizer

Nicholas Russell trip report

Hannah Bhuiya trip report Bhuiya echoes Hickey’s observation that "City" is hidden upon approach because it's lower than ground level.

Ahmed Naji trip report Believer Magazine had delightful illustrations made by Rich Tommaso. Love the footprints in front of "Complex One."

Satellite photos were added to Google Maps in April 2005, Greg Allen's June 2005 post links to first batch of Land Art coordinates for satellite photos. Heizer dissuades from seeing the work from this view: "Flying over it squishes the Gestalt."