In 1971, Smithson’s Spiral Jetty became submerged in the salty water of the Great Salt Lake and did not emerge again until 2002. Smithson took photographs of his Spiral Jetty, created a thirty-two-minute film of its creation, and wrote an essay in 1972 about the earthwork’s conception and formation. Smithson hired contractor Bob Phillips to use his construction equipment to move 6,650 tons of basalt and earth into a spiral that extended into the lake’s salty, pink waters.
Smithson sought to build his jetty out of the same earth to mimic the powerful effect of the land. Fascinated by high salt content the reddish tone of the Great Salt Lake, Smithson ventured to its shores and was enthralled by the awe inspiring effect of the desolate and raw landscape surrounding Rozel Point and the ways in which the world seemed to spiral around the lake’s surface in an all encompassing manner. Smithson is known as an artist who sought to challenge the role that art played in the world and the ways in which society defined it and being at the forefront of new developments in landart and earthworks. Smithson specifically chose the site Rozel Point because he liked the dark pink colour of the lake on the northeast shore.In 1970, Robert Smithson constructed his landart piece titled, Spiral Jetty, at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The exchange of water will “not impact the colour of the water around Spiral Jetty”, Baxter says, nor is it likely to radically alter the water levels. Spiral Jetty is located in the north arm, where the water is lower and pinker in hue. One solution that has recently been approved is to rebuild part of the causeway that separates the north and south arms of the lake, which will re-establish a small flow of water between the two sections. “There’s concern from an ecological point of view that the lake is shrinking,” Baxter says.
The lake level has naturally fluctuated over the past 160 years since records began, but recent development in Utah has further diverted water from the lake.
Smithson died in a plane crash in 1973 aged 35.Ī spokesman for Dia confirms that the “severe drought” has affected Spiral Jetty, but adds: “While we will continue to work with our partners to maintain the site, there are no plans for any intervention.” “The current thinking by most is that Robert Smithson would have loved to see the environmental changes that occur around his artwork, so there is no real talk of intervention,” Baxter says. However, the consensus among the three organisations that look after the work (the Dia Art Foundation in New York, the Great Salt Lake Institute and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts) is that there is no need to take direct action to protect the work. As a result, the pink salt-encrusted basalt rocks of Spiral Jetty are perhaps the most exposed they have ever has been-the 1,500ft-long work was constructed in 1970 during a drought and subsequently submerged for more than three decades before re-emerging in 2004. Water levels are “inches” from the historic low set in 1963, says Bonnie Baxter, the director of the Great Salt Lake Institute. The Great Salt Lake in Utah, home to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, is facing the most severe drought in its history.
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