Robert Smithson decided to make monumental sculptures using perhaps the world’s oldest material, the earth itself, but he used modern tools to shape it in a way and on a scale rarely seen. Spiral Jetty is as the name would suggest, a spiral. Part of what makes it special is the enormousness of it. On the peninsula at Rozel Point on Utah’s Great Salt Lake, Smithson created his most famous monumental sculpture using over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth from the site. The spiral forms a path out onto the lake. It is intended to be not only witnessed, but experienced. Walking the spiral would be an almost meditative act similar to circumambulating or walking around a hindu temple. The spiral allows people to walk out onto the lake. A small speck on a vast lake witnessing the entropy of nature as the water erodes the foundation. The gigantic piece built from thousands of tons of stone has been decaying from the moment it was built. It was a giant monument to nature demonstrating the concept of entropy. It was born out of a time of social upheaval and changing norms leaving in which people were rethinking the ways they related to both nature and the constructed environment which now that I’m saying it out loud could just as easily be a description of pretty much any time period as the only true constant is change.

Help support the show by completing the network's survey. You can give me feedback to improve the show and get a chance to win a $500 Amazon Gift Card!

Who ARTed is an Airwave Media Podcast.

Connect with me:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Tiktok

Support the show:

Merch from TeePublic | Make a Donation

As always you can find images of the work being discussed at www.WhoARTedPodcast.com and of course, please leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. You might hear it read out on the show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Smithson | Spiral Jetty