One of Smithson’s proposals for “Elements of Art: Earth, Air, Fire, Water,” a 1971 show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, develops his notion of transportation as art. His drawing entitled Juggernaut shows a flat back trailer with heavy rocks and poured concrete loaded on it. In another drawing Smithson included the definition of a juggernaut: “anything that exacts blind devotion or terrible sacrifice.” It was Smithson’s intention that the Juggernaut be pulled around the city and parked at different locations, something that never actually happened – just as many of his drawings are of purely imaginary or aspirational realizations that are as whimsical as they are elegant.
