Artist Charles Ross spent half his life making Star Axis, a work of art that allows you to travel 13,000 years into the future and 13,000 years into the past.  

The New York Times has called Ross “the greatest land artist you've never heard of.”

After 50 years, as the project nears completion in the American Southwest, Ross invites us into the depths of his artistic practice and passion. From following his dream to excavate a mountainside, to the connections between interstellar light and human DNA, Ross explores his—and our—connection to the universe.  

By using astronomy to model the 26,000-year star cycle of Polaris, our current North star, Star Axis allows those who traverse this monumental sculpture’s staircase to view the sky as it was in Cleopatra’s time and as it will be 13,000 years in the future. Ross has created land art that makes “you feel like you’re standing at the place where the Earth meets the sky.” For Ross, “Art has a job and that is: Make connections between us and what’s out there.”  

“Where the Earth Meets the Sky” was produced in collaboration with RAVA films and is part of the National Gallery of Art’s groundbreaking documentary anthology and multimedia project West to East. The anthology explores artists across the United States and the ways their communities inform their lives and practices. Six more documentaries will be released on YouTube in fall 2026 along with dozens of articles.