spiral registration

this is one of those pieces that is a ‘guilty pleasure’ for me. it is so ubiquitous in the world of installation/earth works that i feel that if i mention it to anyone conversant in these things they’ll think, “ok, so he’s been to an ‘introduction to art’ class” and roll their eyes and immediately dismiss me. but it still remains in my mind _the_ defining earth works piece. and i don’t think i’ll ever stop falling in love with it every time i see an image.
i’m curious as to how it translates in person. yeah, if you can go back 8 times, it makes perfect sense. but if i go there once (which, being located in salt lake city, is a long shot) will it ruin it? is it one of those things that is more precious as a concept/inspiration that solely exists in my mind?
and i’m going to be an asshole and guess that one andy goldsworthy makes the list. or at least he should.

Well you aren’t allowing me to sit silently in the corner and watch from afar.

There are any number of arguments that would allow us to dismiss this project. Whether it being the most prominent piece of land art or Heizer’s crazy notion that he brought everyone out west. However, having visited the big three, or four depending on what you think of the Amarillo Ramp, the jetty is unavoidable in this discussion. Given your own proclivity to the water it seems to be the most appropriate.

Yes so much of what we experience of a place is a representation of the moment when we are there and certainly my own interpretation of it is limited to a moment in late May. You mentioned the level of the lake and how the jetty has appeared and disappeared. Shorty after it was finished it disappeared under the Great Salt Lake and finally resurfaced at the 25th anniversary. Since that time it seems to have come and gone with snow melts and dry summers. The lake is so shallow that it can go from being submerged to being completely dry in the matter of a month. It is that impermanence of the jetty that is most important.

Over the course of the day the most fascinating aspect is the color of the water. As the sun moves across the sky moving in and out of clouds, the color of the water shifts from red to blue and back again. Though, as has been discussed one trip doesn’t unravel the entire project. I know that I will return to the lake having both a better understanding of how to get there and what to look for.

Smithson, Heizer, and DeMaria put these project in these places and on these sites for a reason. All of the big three capture and embody their site, all amplifying them in a slightly different way. All of them also should be experienced over time, unfolding slowly over the course of a day and multiple visits. I could go on forever about these projects and if the others come up in the list I will talk about them at that moment.

We have talked in the past about the goal of having a greater understanding of what we mean when we say “site.” The Jetty is the perfect beginning to this discussion and the fact that everyone knows about it is critical to establishing the common ground or perhaps an uncommon site.

I laugh when I describe this one as ‘just sitting still.’ Of course what I mean is that the spiral itself is the medium around which everything else changes, thus changing its self. Remember our conversations about how something just has to stand still? In particular when one is dealing with water. The time scale on this one is amazing. In juxaposition, as Couch mentioned, perhaps an Andy Goldsworthy should make the list. Goldworthy’s time scales are in most cases an instant pleasure. Many of his projects are not about revisitation (although his tide piles certain require the change of time and his gates are meant to last years and years) instead I see a lot of his work about being there for it. Although, generally, he is the only to enjoy it in person. It’s a clever acceleration and the whim of being tied into the fleeting moments of the site.