Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty with Sun (1970)
Graphite on paper
12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

a graphite drawing by Robert Smithson of the Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty with Sun (1970)
Graphite on paper
12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty with Sun [detail] (1970)
Graphite on paper
12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Spiral Jetty with Sun

Robert Smithson

1970

Graphite on paper

12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Spiral Jetty with Sun is both a drawing of Smithson's iconic earthwork Spiral Jetty and an illustration mapping out his intentions for a specific sequence filmed from a helicopter for the film Spiral Jetty. When Smithson first visited the site of the earthwork at Rozel Point on Utah’s Great Salt Lake he experienced a powerful mirage, later describing in the Spiral Jetty essay that the “shoreline became the edge of the sun, a boiling curve, an explosion rising into a fiery prominence. Matter collapsing into the lake mirrored in the shape of a spiral.“ In the Spiral Jetty film Smithson set out to capture this visceral experience of the site and the earthwork through shifting aerial shots filmed from a looping helicopter. “The helicopter maneuvered the sun’s reflection through the Spiral Jetty until it reached the center. The water functioned as a vast thermal mirror. From that position the flaming reflection suggested the ion source of a cyclotron that extended into a spiral of collapsed matter.” Executed in Smithson’s characteristic energetic cross-hatching, the mark-making in Spiral Jetty with Sun reflects the chaotic disorientation and recalibration that takes place during the aerial footage at the end of the Spiral Jetty film.

Writing

Writing by the Artist

The Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson

My concern with salt lakes began with my work in 1968 on the Mono Lake Site-Nonsite in California. Later I read a book called Vanishing Trails of Atacama by William Rudolph which described salt lakes (salars) in Bolivia in all stages of desiccation and filled with micro bacteria that give the water surface a red color. The pink flamingos that live around the salars match the color of the water. In The Useless Land, John Aarons and Claudio Vita-Finzi describe Laguna Colorada: “The basalt (at the shores) is black, the volcanos purple, and their exposed interiors yellow and red. The beach is grey and the lake pink, topped with the icing of iceberg-like masses of salts.” Because of the remoteness of Bolivia and because Mono Lake lacked a reddish color, I decided to investigate the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

The helicopter maneuvered the sun’s reflection through the Spiral Jetty until it reached the center. The water functioned as a vast thermal mirror. From that position the flaming reflection suggested the ion source of a cyclotron that extended into a spiral of collapsed matter. All sense of energy acceleration expired into a rippling stillness of reflected heat. A withering light swallowed the rocky particles of the spiral, as the helicopter gained altitude. All existence seemed tentative and stagnant. The sound of the helicopter motor became a primal groan echoing into tenuous aerial views. Was I but a shadow in a plastic bubble hovering in a place outside mind and body? Et in Utah ego. I was slipping out of myself again, dissolving into a unicellular beginning, trying to locate the nucleus at the end of the spiral.

Robert Smithson

"The Spiral Jetty." Arts of the Environment, edited by Gyorgy Kepes, 1972

Related Info

1969—1970

Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson

1970

1969—1970

Built at the mouth of a terminal basin rich in minerals and nearly devoid of life, Spiral Jetty is a testament to Smithson’s fascination with entropy. Its precarious location lends itself to the structure’s inevitable disintegration, yet its impressive size and deliberate shape command the surrounding landscape. Constructed from 6,650 tons of rock and earth, the spiral continuously changes form as nature, industry, and time take effect.

In 1999 Nancy Holt and the Estate of Robert Smithson donated the earthwork to Dia Art Foundation, who continue as stewards.

1969—1970

a drawing of a spiral jetty along a shore with handwritten notations

Spiral Jetty in Red Salt Water

Robert Smithson

ca. 1970

1969—1970

One of many preliminary drawings for Smithson’s most famous work, Spiral Jetty, this particular sketch calls attention to the striking red hue of Great Salt Lake. The color is a result of salt-tolerant algae and bacteria, a feature that reminded Smithson of the primordial sea. While the drawing appears as a simplified plan for the iconic earthwork, it is not merely a means to an end. Rather, this sketch—along with countless others—exemplifies Smithson’s ongoing meditation on the infinitude of time, change, and spiritual desire as represented by the spiral form.

1969—1970

Spiral Jetty [film]

Robert Smithson

1970

1969—1970

Robert Smithson made the film Spiral Jetty on returning to New York from Utah, after completing his landmark earthwork of the same name in April 1970. Spiral Jetty is located on the Rozel Point peninsula on the northeastern shore of Great Salt Lake. Made from over six thousand tons of black basalt rocks and earth collected from the site, Spiral Jetty stretches 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide in a counterclockwise spiral. As well as the earthwork and film, Spiral Jetty is the title of an essay Smithson wrote in 1972.

Spiral Jetty with Sun

Writing

The Spiral Jetty

Related Info

See Also