The film follows a group of mostly New York artists in the late 60s and early 70s to America’s desert southwest where with earth, rocks, and other natural materials, they made art on a monumental scale and on their own terms, that was, as the film’s director James Crump writes, “impervious to commodification.”
Using period footage and film shot from helicopters, Troublemakers focuses on Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty, 1970), Walter De Maria (The Lightning Field, 1977) and Michael Heizer (Double Negative, 1969-70). There is also cogent commentary from artists, critics and dealers, among them Vito Acconci, Carl Andre, Germano Celant, Paula Cooper, Virginia Dwan, Nancy Holt, Dennis Oppenheim, Willoughby Sharp. The New York Times calls Troublemakers a “brisk, thrilling documentary about American artists who went out into the open spaces in North America to mold or scar or both, the land itself.”
Run time: 75 minutes
Admission free.