Leonard Knight at Salvation Mountain, Slab City, California, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

About this artwork

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Joel Sternfeld

Title

Leonard Knight at Salvation Mountain, Slab City, California, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2005

Medium

Chromogenic print

Inscriptions

No markings recto or verso Leonard Knight’s religious awakening occurred in 1967, when he was thirty-five years old. “One day by myself I started saying, ‘Jesus, I’m a sinner. Please come into my heart.’” Sometime afterward, Knight began to work on a hot-air balloon made from bed sheets, on which he planned to write “God is Love,” as well as the prayer that had facilitated his conversion. This plan failed when the balloon could not get off the ground. Not one to be discouraged in his quest to spread his newfound faith, Knight began creating Salvation Mountain from adobe and hay bales on the site of his balloon efforts. Visitors have donated some of the funds necessary to purchase the estimated one hundred thousand gallons of paint used to color the structure over the years; California paint stores have contributed the rest. In 1994, local government authorities declared the mountain a “toxic nightmare” and drew up plans to have it carted off and buried in a nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Rallies by Knight’s supporters, as well as his own test results proving that the site was non-hazardous, led the government to back down and allow him to continue building his shrine. He does so daily, except when graciously showing visitors around and giving them postcards inscribed with the Sinner’s Prayer. Because Knight considers it an obligation to personally greet each of the fifty to one hundred visitors who come each day, construction now depends on the help of volunteers. His latest project is a museum to house his own work and that of other artists. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005

Dimensions

Image: 26.5 × 33.2 cm (10 7/16 × 13 1/8 in.); Paper: 27.9 × 35.5 cm (11 × 14 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ralph and Nancy Segall

Reference Number

2008.737

Extended information about this artwork

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