Though Smithson wrote about it and made a film, he never gave a definitive explanation for what the sculpture means or what it’s shape is intended to convey. Like those land works, which have survived thousands of years but remain a mystery, the meaning of Smithson’s work is also a bit enigmatic.
It has an affinity with the mysterious stone circles of England and Ireland as well as Native American effigy mounds, whose raised piles of earth, like the Serpent Mounds in Ohio, are shaped like animals, humans or symbols. Smithson said he wanted to invoke the prehistoric in the site and it’s on this level that the piece most connects for me. As we walked the counter clock-wise spiral, which is 15 feet across, is felt smaller than I’d expected and we arrived at its center quickly. We picked our way through the rocks and brush down a small hill to the artwork, which the deeply receded waters had left essentially beached. A healthy crowd of couples and families had fanned out across the sculpture and the salt flats surrounding it.
Spiral jetty today full#
When we finally arrived at Rozel Point Peninsula, Spiral Jetty’s setting, the parking lot was nearly full with about 30 cars. The empty landscape, was punctuated in a few places by cattle grates and fences, though no cattle. This is also the last stop for bathrooms or water before continuing to Spiral Jetty.īeyond the ranger station, our rental car turned up a cloud of dust as we followed the signs pointing us to the jetty. Two colorful, old-fashioned locomotives, replicas of the originals, steamed across a stretch of tracks, a demonstration run that is one of the site’s attractions. The paved road ended at the Golden Spike National Historic Site, which marks the spot where the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, when workers joined the Union and the Central Pacific Railroads. When the road dipped to cross several marsh complexes, we spotted a couple of great blue herons and a brown duck or two, as muted in color as the landscape. The road took us along the bare Promontory Mountains, which stretched low across the skyline, covered in rocks and brush. At Brigham City, we left the highway and headed west on Route 15, through the tiny town of Corrine, still an hour away, but the last place for gas or food. We’d spent Labor Day weekend together, hiking and bicycling near Provo, but saved our final day to visit Spiral Jetty. Under a clear blue September sky, with temperatures in the high ‘80s, I drove with my two sisters north of Salt Lake City, stopping for lunch in Ogden, which has a downtown lined with historic buildings. Toward the end of his career, as his interest in the Minimalist movement grew, he focused on creating sculptures, particularly, “earthworks.” He died at 35, in a plane crash while working on a piece in Texas, “Amarillo Ramp.” The Trek to Spiral Jetty
Though he is identified with the Land Art movement, Smithson, born in 1938 in New Jersey, began his career in New York City, where he focused on painting and collage and was influenced by Pop Art.
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