SFX: sounds of shoveling dirt, pouring dirt, dirt sifting down and falling in lumps. 

CAITLIN HASKELL:  

The dirt comes from Essen, Germany. And that’s important, you know? If-If we run out of dirt, this particular batch of dirt, we have to go back to Essen and gather more of it.  

NARRATOR:  

You’d think: dirt is dirt. But the artist, Robert Smithson, was interested in taking the very essence of one place, and bringing it to another. I’ll let curators Sarah Roberts and Caitlin Haskell describe it.  

HASKELL:  

There is sort of a sense that … that we’re in San Francisco, but there’s a little piece of Germany that’s right here, too.  

SARAH ROBERTS:  

That’s sitting right here on the floor with us, and that there’s kind of this meta-connection in some way to another place, which is where the title comes from: … Non-Site.  

HASKELL:  

And what’s also fascinating, too, is that … you feel like you’re seeing the dirt that’s in the gallery with you; but a lot of times you’re seeing the mirror reflection of it –  

ROBERTS:  

Right.  

HASKELL: 

It’s an illusion that looks very real. So I think stand back, take it in as a whole, and then get close.  

ROBERTS/HASKELL MELANGE: [with laughter]  

Don’t touch it! Don’t touch the dirt! Don’t touch the dirt! Don’t eat the dirt!