11/18/2023 0 Comments Spiral jetty by robert smithson![]() ![]() Again linking to the spiral nature of time. Time is cyclical like this with periods of destruction and regeneration. To me, this is highlighting the way that we destroy and then want to repair, only for someone else or another group to destroy. It cycles between these two for some time. There are times when the film flips between two clips: footage of man-made construction which is very noisy and more peaceful recordings of nature such as water lapping. ![]() The footage of the trucks driving almost becomes hypnotic, in the same way that our destruction of the Earth can at times be mindless. There are shots of a truck driving around amongst oil rigs disturbing the dust of the Earth as it does. The industrial nature of the area is a feature of the film and is shown in a few ways. There is a direct mention of this in the film when Smithson talks about the old popular local myth that the lake was connected to the ocean by a subterranean channel that was opened by a whirlpool portal. Again, this emphasises that Smithson is trying to root his Spiral Jetty in a much more ancient time, time where geological changes are continually occurring. There are also multiple images of dinosaurs and mentions of the Jurassic era through his use of the map. Spirals are closely associated with labyrinths and this idea of being able to get lost in his artwork. To me, these indicate that Smithson is pointing to the Spiral Jetty being a nod to the ancient world, of being mystical and fantastical. For example, there is a pile of books of which The Lost World by Doyle is one, as well as a book on Mazes and Labyrinths. Throughout the film, there are symbols and items that give clues as to what Smithson would like the land art to represent. It is certainly atmospheric, in an almost sinister way. It could be this idea of someone keeping time whilst others work, or it could be to highlight the industry of the area that Smithson chose for the location. This draws you into the concept of labour, industry and timekeeping. Throughout parts of the film, you hear this almost metronomic sound in the background, possibly someone using a hammer-like tool. ![]() The film itself is a piece of creative art and would tell a story without the sculpture. (See Michael Heizer’s behemoth, City.) But, five decades after Smithson’s death, his beguiling art continues to lay the groundwork for those eager to explore our relationship with the planet.Before researching the background of the Spiral Jetty, I wanted to watch Smithson’s own film about his work so that I could view his movie with no preconceptions. The notion that Land Art is rife with masculine gestures-egotistical monuments disturbing nature to valorize the sole creative genius behind them-is also inescapable. One of Smithson’s works saw him dump a giant barrel of industrial glue in British Columbia others question the ethics of white artists making permanent works on Indigenous lands. But perceptions of Land Art are shifting. His extant works are in good hands with Dia Art Foundation and the Holt/Smithson Foundation, which Holt willed into being upon her death, in 2014. Heavy rains submerged Spiral Jetty by the time he died, and it would only reappear a few times until 2002, when droughts shrunk the lake by two-thirds. (His wife, fellow artist Nancy Holt, completed it one month later.) While Smithson’s outsize impact on Land Art is well-documented, his works face a precarious future amid a warming climate. He’d realize one more- Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in the Netherlands-but died in 1973, at age 35, in a plane crash while photographing the almost-complete Amarillo Ramp in Texas. It would be some time, though, before he realized the monumental Land Art opuses that expanded what art could be and where it could be found, and have come to define his legacy.Ĭhief among these is Spiral Jetty (1970), a giant earthwork made of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks forming a 1,500-foot-long hypnotic coil jutting out from a remote part of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. That yielded a trove of sculptures made from industrial materials in the ensuing years-and a lifelong fascination with the thermodynamic principle of entropy. He started exploring industrial areas in his home state of New Jersey and became transfixed by trucks excavating tons of earth and rock. He’d go on to briefly flirt with Pop and Catholic art, but pivoted to earthen materials. Robert Smithson was a scrappy 22-year-old unknown when a painting imbued with Catholic mysticism caught the eye of a Roman gallerist in New York, kickstarting his career and a benefactor relationship with arts patron Virgina Dwan. Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York … Image courtesy of Holt/Smithson Foundation. Robert Smithson taken by Nancy Holt in Utah, 1971. ![]()
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