We wonder what Spiral Jetty will look like when you visit. However, in 2002, severe droughts caused the lake to recede and Spiral Jetty has remained visible since. The most iconic of the major earthworks of the ’70s, Spiral Jetty (pictured above) is a 1,500-foot vortex. In 1972, it became submerged and remained that way for 30 years, except for rare and brief appearances. Below are 15 works that help tell the story of Land art as it has expanded and evolved. In 1970 when Spiral Jetty was created, water levels of the Great Salt Lake were particularly low. Spiral Jetty is 15ft wide and 1,500ft long, and we were dwarfed in comparison.Ī core tenet of land art is its susceptibility to the cycles of nature. From our point of view, the scale was impressive. Smithson was comprehensively obsessed with this notion, and it is one of the central ideas of his work. Entropy is believed to mean the condition of the universe endlessly shifting towards chaos and even evolution in reverse. From a distance, the design is awesome (see it on Google Maps). Spiral Jetty articulates the artist’s fixation on entropy as well as the passage of time. In making Spiral Jetty, Smithson and his crew (two dump trucks, a tractor, and a front loader) displaced 6,650 tons of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks from the shore, strategically repositioning the earth and rock into the interactive curvy structure it is today. In the distance, the waters of the Great Salt Lake appeared reddish, a hue caused by the abundance of microbes. Eventually, the ground became lattices of crystalline deposits, with miniature salty pyramids atop. Then the shore abruptly transformed into a tundra of salt, with a surface that cracked and fragmented under our feet. The backdrop of Spiral Jetty is absolutely alien! Looking towards the land, we saw massive basalt boulders left behind by an extinct volcano lying amongst puffs of yellow-green brush and scrub. Silas’ parents, Willie and Nancy, joined us in this adventure! Constructed in 1970, it’s an impressive counterclockwise coil jutting into the water of the Rozel Point Peninsula. Almost 50 years after it was constructed, we ventured to the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake in the state of Utah so that we could experience Spiral Jetty in person! It took a long drive from the main road on an unpaved road to reach it, but the art truly fits the site. Spiral Jetty is arguably his most famous site-specific piece. Constructed from the earth on which it was made, the Spiral Jetty represents Smithson’s personal philosophies that challenged the boundaries of art and the relationship between nature and humanity. You may or may not be familiar with this iconic earthwork… it is the spectacular Spiral Jetty! After the great American artist Robert Smithson became disenchanted with galleries which he called “mausoleums for art,” he challenged the traditional notions of contemporary art, becoming a pioneer of land art and moving his work to the great outdoors. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is a larger than life spiral that has been constructed at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake in 1970.
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