[CURATION] Atlantis in Art World, Spiral Jetty

February 25, 2021

Atlantis in Art World, Spiral Jetty

by Suhyun Kim

Why did artists start to react to the mother nature? In the 1960s, when the movement was a reaction to the disengagement of Modernism from social issues, artists turned to Mother Nature. Land artists used the materials from the Earth and their concerns centered around rejection of the commercialization of art-making and enthusiasm with an emergent ecological movement. Due to Covid-19, nowadays, we desperately realize the preciousness of nature damaged by human and learned that the planet will not wait.

© SU: D’art

Today, we will introduce you to Robert Smithson, who is popular as a land artist. Robert Smithson is best known for Spiral Jetty, which is which is a remarkable coil of rock composed in the colored waters of the shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Spiral Jetty gets fully submerged and visible depending on the water level. Smithson’s early death, combined with Spiral Jetty being submerged underwater from 1972-1993, added mystery and notoriety to his work as the years passed. Spiral Jetty was donated to Dia Art Foundation in 1999. Dia partnered with local foundations as well as the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to further advocate for the work.

© SU: D’art

To move the rock into the lake, Smithson hired Bob Philips of nearby Ogden, Utah. Smithson had a difficult time convincing him to accept the unusual proposal. Bob Philips worked for 40 years in construction and often told people that his “best-known construction job was the only thing I ever built that … was to look at and no purpose.” He used two dump trucks, a large tractor, and a front-end loader to haul the 6,650 tons of rock and earth into the lake. The work began on the jetty in April 1970 and was actually constructed twice, the first time requiring six days and the second time for additional three days to have the shape altered to its present configuration.

Smithson died in a plane crash in Texas three days after finishing the Spiral Jetty. April 2020 marked the Spiral Jetty’s 50th anniversary, which Smithson referred to shortly before his untimely death in 1973 as “the work of the decade”. Smithson said, it was “the edge of the sun, a boiling curve, an explosion rising into a fiery prominence.” If we do not find beauty from our everyday lives, just because the work is not displayed in the museum, or the name of artist and artwork is unknown, we will really be missing a lot.

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[CURATION] Atlantis in Art World, Spiral Jetty