In 1968, astronaut William Anders took this
photo of the earth rising over the moon. The picture which became known as “Earthrise”
showed the world as a lonely fragile oasis. And it changed the way we see our planet. It was as if humanity was seeing itself in a
mirror for the first time. Seeing itself as a globe, as an object, would not only change our
consciousness but also be inextricably tied up with what would be called “Land Art”. Newsreader: “Good evening. Dr Martin Luther King,
the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. 1968 was a turbulent year for the United states. And the sudden appearance of “Earth Art” or
“Land art” can be seen as a response to the heightened political activism of the time, as
well as the emerging environmental movement. The world was changing and art needed to change
too. Artists were fed up with the gallery system and the over-commercialization of art and
culture. They were questioning what art was. Was it only art if it was in a gallery? Or a
museum? Was it only art if you could sell it? A group of artists, mostly working in New York
city, were looking to transcend the limitations of painting and sculpture. To do this they
would go west – to the vast desert spaces. They would find something that was elemental
something that would go beyond physicality. They were fearless, ambitious,
and daring. They were pioneers. You could say land art existed thousands of
years even before oil painting – but it would take a group of American artists to bring it
back to the public gaze in the 1960s and 70s. Artists like Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson and
Nancy Holt had emerged from sculpture, minimalism and conceptual art. Rather than painting the
landscape they started working outdoors and sculpting directly INTO the landscape itself.
Instead of paint brushes they would use bulldozers. And the earth would be not only the site,
but also the materials AND the canvas. In spring 1970, Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt
visited northern Utah to select a site to construct an earthwork. With no outlets to the sea
the Great Salt Lake is a “Terminal” lake – only rain can replenish the lake’s waters. We see images of
the spiral jetty looking picturesque, but it is important to note that the lake has always been
an area of intense industrialisation. It still is. And it’s one of the reasons Smithson chose it.
In Smithson’s film about the making of Spiral Jetty we see an abandoned oil rig in the background.
The Union Pacific railroad runs right through it. Smithson saw his works of art as the “mediators”
between the environment and the economy. Some art theorists use the term “Land art” and
“Environmental art” interchangeably. But the land art of Smithson is not so much about ecology or direct
activism. Spiral Jetty should really be seen as a way of expanding awareness of geological changes.
This was at the core of Smithson’s practice. But who paid for these projects? Land artists may have
shown disdain for the traditional art market, but their massive outdoor works still required money.
And lots of it. Land art needed wealthy patrons who were not going to get anything in return –
just the chance to feel a part of art history. Robert Smithson was not just an artist – he was an
intellectual, an important writer and a theorist. It would be his words that gave land art a voice
He only created three monumental earth works and his early death – in the process of creating the third –
would lend his work a mythological status. Smithson moved to New York in the late 1950s.
Gallerist Virginia Dwan gave him a solo show in 1959. And she would eventually fund the
Spiral Jetty. At this time Smithson was producing paintings, drawings, and collages
inspired by the Abstract Expressionists. Later his work would take a turn towards
minimalism. The jump from minimalism to land art is not such a giant leap. While the key
element of land art was often its monumentality and its site-specific context, it also connected
closely with many of the concerns of minimalism. In 1963, Smithson married Nancy Holt, a
brilliant artist and a member of the earth, land and conceptual art movements. She became not
just smithson’s wife but his collaborator. And their partnership would mark a
significant turning point in his career. Both of them were fascinated by man’s imprint
on the natural landscape, and in 1969 they took a journey through England and Wales, visiting
sites ranging from ancient ruins and quarries to wild natural places. It had a major influence
on their work. Then in 1968 they took part in the legendary show “Earthworks” at the Virginia Dwan
gallery in New York. The following year Michael Heizer created “Double Negative” in Nevada. A year
after that Smithson built the Spiral Jetty in Utah. Rozel point is located in a remote section
of the north end of the Great Salt Lake, whose waters are four times saltier than the sea. It is
nearly devoid of life. In this harsh environment only a few organisms like algae and bacteria can
live. Brine shrimp however thrive in this extreme environment. They are a brilliant red colour and
in Autumn they shed their old shells and deposit them in the lake. It is the bacteria and algae
that live on the discarded shrimp shells that provide almost a constant source of colour – ranging
from blood red to rust orange and purple pink. The colour of the lake was the preliminary
factor that attracted Smithson to the site. Smithson: “North of the Lucin cut-off, the water is a
red or pink colour due to algae in the brine”. To him the pigmentation evoked the primordial seas. The mirror-like quality of the lake also
appealed to Smithson – not only would he create a spiral, but the water would act like
an inverse spiral and a mirror at the same time. A big part of Spiral Jetty’s appeal
is the sheer audaciousness of it. And the enormous effort involved in the
construction only adds to its mythological status. It was made possible by the support of Virginia
Dwan who put up nine thousand dollars for the project. In April 1970 Smithson received
the lease agreement for 25 acres of land on the banks of the Great Salt Lake.
The rent was $100 per annum. Smithson then obtained permission to
move the six thousand five hundred tons of basilt and earth from the shoreline.
To construct a huge fifteen hundred foot long, fifteen foot wide, spiral
shaped jetty out on the lake. Part of Spiral Jetty’s attraction is how
our senses are heightened when we encounter artworks larger than us. Interacting with such
a huge piece, requires a shift in perception which then shifts how one experiences
the world around it. The waters of the lake were unusually low when construction
began – but it was still an incredible feat. Smithson marked out the shape with poles and
rope, and his contractor Bob Phillips used two dump trucks, a large tractor, and a front end loader
to haul the tons of rock and earth from the shore into the lake. This is the first proposal
by Smithson, which they built. With an island as planned – and you can see that here.
But Smithson wasn’t happy with the shape and to the contractors horror, insisted on removing it
entirely and starting again – to new specifications. Despite this setback, Smithson was an artist
who made his mark in a very short time. Investigating the lake – choosing a site – hiring a contractor –
and creating the work – took just four weeks. Spiral Jetty’s strange markings deliberately
reference prehistoric architecture – as well as American Indian “Petroglyphs” found in Utah.
Early spirals are found in many places in the Americas. Spirals fascinated Smithson, and in his writings
he also mentioned their occurrence in galaxies and nebulae, in the structure of crystals, in the human
ear, and in particular in Constantin Brancusi’s famous portrait of James Joyce. In Smithson’s early
work you often find the spiral form. Near to theSpiral Jetty site, the Bingham copper mines
– still active – appealed to his love of industrial sites. In fact he once proposed an Earthwork to the
owners – but was refused. Some early settlers believed the center of an ancient universe was
directly UNDER the Great Salt Lake and Spiral Jetty could be seen as a “portal” to that world. This
would tie into a theory that a book by the science fiction writer JG Ballard inspired Smithson.
Smithson was a huge fan of science fiction and in 1967, he took the title of Brian Aldiss’
“Earthworks” to describe his own form of art. JG Ballard’s “The Voices of Time”, like the Spiral
Jetty is set in the salt flats, and concerned with time. Ballard’s world is ravaged by climate
change and characters are transformed by landscape. The climax has the main character, a scientist,
building a “Mandala” off the coast of the salt flats. A mandala is a ritualistic symbol in Asian
cultures, and in the book it is a way of communicating with the universe. The primary theme
in both of these books is one which was common to the new wave of science fiction writers – that
of entropy and the breakdown of all things. Entropy is the inevitable and steady deterioration
of a system or society – or in this case a work of art. Land art might change in unpredictable ways.
And that’s the point. These works do not exist in isolation from the world around them, and
land artists embrace entropy – the idea of decay or even the complete disintegration of their work.
From the second Spiral Jetty was created it has continually changed. Only a year after it
was completed, the rising lake level submerged it under water. It would reappear briefly in the
1980s then disappear again under 16 feet of water. Until 2002 – when it would resurface
as white as snow, with encrusted salt. Robert Smithson was killed in a light plane crash
along with the pilot and a photographer, as they were inspecting one of his Earthworks under
construction on a ranch near Amarillo, Texas. His story is an American epic. That of a man who leaves the
city to search for truth in the vast landscapes of the West. I think the Land Art movement was less about ecology, than it
was about a desire to take art out of the white box of the gallery. But thanks to its emergence and submergence, Spiral Jetty
has become a handy visual metaphor – a symbol of climate change. It seems inevitable that after a few more
cycles of high water and extreme drought the Spiral Jetty will disappear completely – and return to
the vast salt bed of the Great Lake – from where it came. Something Smithson
would have been very pleased with. Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQv3YqHisZc
