On this view of time, things can only run down, a tendency suggested perhaps by the Jetty's counter-clockwise orientation (seen from shore). This is illustrated by irreversible changes such as scrambling an egg (it can't be unscrambled) or mixing two differently colored batches of sand in a sandbox (Smithson's example). According to physical theory, the overall organization of any closed system can only decrease over time. Smithson's concern with ruins is related to his interest in entropy. In January 1970, Smithson established Partially Buried Woodshed as a deliberately constructed ruin on the Kent State University campus (Ohio). In an earlier essay, a somewhat parodic take on the monumental genre, he spoke of buildings that "don't fall into ruin after they are built but rather rise into ruin before they are built." 9 The Jetty can be seen as a flattened Tower of Babel. He referred several times to the Biblical motif of the Tower of Babel and its association with the disintegration of a single language into a multiplicity of words and tongues. Mirror Strata 1966-69), drawings, and cardboard spiral models. From early on he showed an interest in pyramidal ziggurat forms, constructing both glass versions (e.g. Smithson was fascinated by the form of the ruined monument. Whereas the archaic works were presumably meant to be durable monuments, the Jetty already suggests and anticipates its own ruin. Another significant difference has to do with the work's temporality. The Jetty, on the other hand, is the work of an individual rather than a culture, and its author provided intensive accounts of its meaning (see entries on the associated article and film). Those earlier works exist in the form of ruins whose purpose and meaning are now obscure. However, it differs from such putative predecessors by being built into the water. The Jetty's form suggests similarities with archaic earthworks, such as Native American serpentine mounds (Ohio) or the Nazca lines (Peru). Smithson was a cerebral artist whose ideas of entropy, monumentality, and the history of art inform his work. With some persuasion (and additional payments) the work was done. He thought at first that the Jetty was finished in a form that was not fully spiral, but shaped like a hook with a small circle at its end. After considering this for a few days, he insisted that the contractor redo the construction to produce the shape that is now iconic.
Smithson considered several possibilities for construction at the site, including an island. Heavy earth moving machinery, which can be seen in the photographic and film records, was used to move 6,650 tons of material. Although Phillips had no previous involvement with artistic work, his knowledge of local materials and experience building dikes in the Great Salt Lake was indispensable. Smithson directed the building of the Jetty, working with a local contractor, Robert "Bob" Phillips. Originally Smithson was attracted to the Rozel Point location because of its abundance of salt crystals and the red algae which proliferated in that section of the Great Salt Lake. 2Ĭrystal formation, as he pointed out, follows a spiral pattern that he noted in many natural processes. From an early age, Smithson was an enthusiastic student of geological history, whose radical breaks and upheavals he saw inscribed in such materials. For example, the basalt rock comprising much of the Jetty is the product of extinct volcanoes. These included the physical site itself in its geological, geographical, and ecological complexity. Smithson's planning and design of the Spiral Jetty, like a number of his earthworks, involved a developing process, drawing on a number of factors. In 2017 Utah designated the Spiral Jetty as the state's official work of art. The artist's essay "The Spiral Jetty" and the eponymous film he made with Nancy Holt, can be considered as coordinate "non-site" aspects of the artwork. He understood these as industrial ruins, or entropic residues. While located in a relatively barren, unpopulated place, Smithson chose the site not only because of the vast surrounding landscape, but with reference to nearby abandoned oil rigs and the Golden Spike monument marking the 1869 completion of the transcontinental railway. The Jetty is a site-specific work, meant to interact with changing conditions of the surrounding water, land, and atmosphere.
Robert Smithson designed and directed the construction of his iconic work the Spiral Jetty in April 1970.
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