12/15/2023 0 Comments Spiral jetty by robert smithson![]() ![]() the artist described it as ‘a major piece’ and it sparked his interest in working with industry and post-industrial landscape to make art ‘a necessary part of their reclamation projects.’ sited on private land, the artwork’s future is uncertain as it was donated to the people of the netherlands, but the specifics of how the work should be cared for and who should take responsibility for the land on which it sits are unclear. Robert smithson’s ‘broken circle/spiral hill’ is a land artwork with a rich history, a deep resonance for the present, and an unknown future. Header video by carlos mora for land art contemporary featuring anne reenders, lisa le feuvre and the director of sonsbeek beyond the limits ‘broken circle/spiral hill’, courtesy of land art contemporary and holt/smithson foundation (also header image) ‘in 2021 our ambition is to build a sustainable future for the artwork, to enable it to inspire future generations,’ says le feuvre. upon the artwork’s fiftieth anniversary, the holt/smithson foundation and land art contemporary are working with CBK emmen and dutch partners to program a series of open weekends between july and october 2021, featuring talks, screenings, and presentations. smithson is known to have donated the piece to the people of the netherlands, however, as it is sited on private land, its future remains uncertain. ‘broken circle/spiral hill’ was created for the 1971 edition of the temporary outdoor exhibition sonsbeek, one year after his much referenced ‘spiral jetty’ at rozel point on the great salt lake in utah (more about it here). ![]() ‘smithson was fascinated by the constructed and reclaimed nature of the dutch landscape, and in emmen he found a perfect location to explore ideas core to his artistic practice,’ lisa le feuvre, holt/smithson foundation executive director, tells designboom in an interview. the quarry and ‘broken circle’ can be seen from the top of the hill, reached via a spiraling path, while at the center of the circle is an immovable huge boulder deposited by ancient glacial movements. the monumental land art piece, which marks smithson’s only extant earthwork outside of the US, consists of two parts: ‘broken circle’, a semi-circular jetty built into a quarry lake filled with reflecting green water and ‘spiral hill’, a cone-shaped hill beside the lake. 298.In 1971, american artist robert smithson carved ‘broken circle/spiral hill’ into the shoreline of a former sand mine near the city of emmen, in the netherlands. Jack Flam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. Spiral Jetty serves as a site from which to view the surroundings-the prehistoric environment that Smithson selected for it.ġ Robert Smithson, “Conversation in Salt Lake City (1972),” in Robert Smithson: Collected Writings, ed. Reaching the innermost point, Smithson gazes out at the spiral path, lake, and mountains. Along with aerial shots of Spiral Jetty is a sequence of images of the artist running on the sculpture. The act of traversing the earthwork is a prominent image in the eponymous film completed months after Smithson built the sculpture. His thinking was equally shaped by his understanding of the third law of thermodynamics as well as a fascination in science fiction and popular science.Īs a path for walking and looking, Spiral Jetty is a sculpture to be experienced. Smithson envisioned an artwork in a state of constant transformation whose form is never fixed and undergoes decay from the moment of its creation. The fractured landscape, fluctuating water levels, and the water’s salinity also speak of the artist’s preoccupation with the concept of entropy. The spiral shape alludes to the molecular lattice of the salt-crystal deposits found throughout the lake’s expanse, and in forming the work, he chose to use basalt boulders of hardened lava found along the peninsula, scattered remnants of the now extinct volcanos in the area. The reddish coloration of the water, caused by the high presence of microbes, initially attracted Smithson to the north arm of the lake. The site of Spiral Jetty was chosen by the artist for the lake’s unusual ecological and geological properties. “I like landscapes that suggest prehistory,” 1 Smithson once observed. Droughts caused the lake to recede in 2002, and the sculpture has remained visible ever since. ![]() ![]() Created at a time when water levels were particularly low, Spiral Jetty was submerged in 1972. In 1970, assisted by a crew operating dump trucks, a tractor, and a front loader, Smithson displaced some 6,000 tons of black basalt rock and earth from the adjacent shore to form a coil 1,500 feet long and approximately 15 feet wide, winding counterclockwise into the lake. Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, located at Rozel Point on the northeastern shore of Great Salt Lake in Utah, is one of the most remarkable examples of Land art. ![]()
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