An artist who I find impressive is Robert Smithson. He is considered to be a minimalist
installation artist, although he did produce some other work in abstract expression. The majority of his work encompasses
reflective surfaces and rock or some substrate of earth.
As a child he was enamored with nature and
was quickly thrown in the art world with a scholarship to Art Students League
in New York. There he became a proponent
of abstract art and did many paintings.
He later married a minimalist artist who was a sculptor and he became
very interested in that style. Part of
his ideals was to create an art project in nature and have it be consumed by
nature. In other words, he wanted nature
to have its way with his projects. He
also styled in taking photos of landscapes and surroundings, then enlarging the
photograph and then reinstalling the enlargement into the landscape. He then would photograph the photograph within
the landscape giving a sense of one referencing the other. Robert Smithson lived from 1938-1973. He died in an airplane crash while working on
his latest project called “Amarillo Ramp” which was under survey for construction
in Amarillo, TX.
My focus today is an incredible
piece of art and work for that matter known as “Spiral Jetty” by Robert
Smithson 1970.
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This is Robert’s most
notable work of art. This particular
piece is a fine example of “earthwork”, as it is made up of mud, precipitated
salt crystals, rocks and water. The
incredible structure is more than 1500 feet long in a spiral and the walls of
the structure are fifteen feet in width.
Separating the spiral walls is water from Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA. Robert saw the lake as a productive ocean
killed by the Dead Sea. This thought by
Smithson, I believe had some reference to biblical plagues and death from a “God”
event. The spiral design of his mammoth sculpture was
taken from the primitive use of spirals throughout many cultures. The spiral design also appears in nature and
can be seen in natural events (water storms) as well as in the biology of many
creatures.
I find it very interesting how the
color of the water changes as you get closer to the center of the spiral. The
enormity of the project is also very striking.
This was not something done and a few days, this was well thought out
and executed with great precision. I
researched and was unable to find any of the chemistry or ecology factors that
the spiral has changed. Is the
concentration of salt greater at the center of the spiral or is it less. Might this be some technique that could be
used to reduce or increase the salinity level of a watershed? There are all kinds of questions, but one
interesting thought is how the timeline of his death may have affected his
work. The rise of the environmentalist
laws and regulations didn’t really start till 1973 with President Nixon. If Smithson were alive today, would he be
ridiculed for disrupting the environment, when all he was really after was
showcasing how constructive and destructive forces with affect nature. Perhaps the environmental movement would have
shut down his future large scale natural art projects or may have demanded that
the “Spiral Jetty” be removed for its impact at the Great Salt Lake. Again, we see the politics of the day and art
closely wound together, as we have
learned throughout our class.
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