SPIRAL JETTY BY Robert Smithson: GREAT ART EXPLAINED

[Uncle Joe]

[Maraya1969]

1. What is the stuff on the ocean in the first picture?

[Hekate]

2. I wrote a brief paper on SJ during a course I took on Earth Art, & wish I had had access to this!

Spiral Jetty really intrigued me, for many reasons. The use of the ancient Spiral symbol/motif was certainly part of it. I tried to see it once when I was in Utah and was told it was underwater by then. I had no idea until just now that it has repeatedly surfaced and sunk since being constructed.

However I am sure I was the only person in that class who pondered what the workmen with the bulldozers would have had to say about the project. My perspective on that came from working in the County Public Works department for 2 years. As the Director’s secretary, among the many people I met were guys from the Road Yard — and they certainly had opinions about the projects they worked on. One of them also brought me a bunch of fossils.

Thanks for this vid, Uncle Joe.