Road to Nowhere: ‘Spiral Jetty’ by Robert Smithson
Monumental art linking the ancient and (post)modern, the macrocosm and microcosm, the beginning and the end…
A single track ‘road’ spirals some 1500 feet out into Utah’s Great Salt Lake. It was constructed from black basalt and aggregate, using earth movers and road-building techniques and stood dark and stark against the waters until it repeatedly submerged and resurfaced with deeper precipitations of bright white salt crystals each time. Now, whenever it appears above water, in years of low rainfall, there is very little black left to show— it looks like it has been covered by freshly fallen snow, in the drought heat.
The mineral rich waters have deposited silts of graduated colour within the spiral waters according to their density and the depth of water. The jetty itself becalms the water so a choppy surface outside the structure eventually reaches mirror stillness at the centre, presenting a perfect reflection of the sky. When the brine shrimp that live in the salt rich waters turn deeper red and move to the surface to breed and spawn, the usual dull rusty colour of the water deepens to a blood red against which the spiral now stands stark and bright white.
