Thursday, August 12, 2004
On the Way to Spiral Jetty
From the Floor will be silent for the next few days--at least until Monday--as I'm heading out the door on a short trip.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that when I return I'll have photos and a report on the current state of Spiral Jetty. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made plans last month to travel to the Southwest to see another of the major Earthworks.
From what I can gather, the water level of the Great Salt Lake is still low enough to allow the piece to be seen. I'm not sure, though, if the level is so low that there will be no water surrounding the work. I got the impression from some photos I saw over a year ago that this was the situation.
In the interim, here are a few links to sites and recent articles on Robert Smithson's most well known piece.
- Dia's website for the work
- The estate's website for the work
- The July/August issue of Sculpture has a good article (including the directions that I'll be following to get there)
- Last weekend, The Telegraph published a short article on the current state of Spiral Jetty.
The Telegraph's article is a review piece that doesn't really say much--but it does say it well. Except, that is, for the part that claims:
like Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, Smithson was a great American pessimist (almost as marked a feature of the national psyche as can-do optimism).
Whatever. After all these centuries the Brits still have a hard time understanding us Yanks and our canonical authors.
Stop back Monday night or Tuesday when I've had the opportunity to upload some photos.
