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  • I really love the way this essay moves.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wed 24 Mar 2010

  • Great article Timothy! I read about the jetty years ago - in fact I have a long list of "land art" pilgrimages that I'd love to undertake. Having a wierd and wonderful destination is an inspiration - and the journey is half the fun!

    Posted by Dereck Rooken-Smith on Fri 26 Mar 2010

  • Wonderful article on your "experience" out there on the salt flats (I use the term in the spirit of progressive education theorist John Dewey). I am struck by the fact that you traveled to the Jetty alone, but that it was through conversation with others that you created individual and collective meaning. It's a wonderful counter to the image of you before the Pollock, isolated in a sea of people. I believe works of art are often best puzzled over with others, thinking and seeing out loud. This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately (I work in an art museum--is it a temple for quiet contemplation or should it be alive with conversations, can it be a mixture of both?). Creating meaning around a work of art as part of a group is a powerful act. What would your "experience" been like without the presence of others?

    Posted by Stephanie on Sat 27 Mar 2010

  • My thanks to all three of you for reading it, and for your kind words. Stephanie, that's a very interesting observation indeed--one that I wasn't even aware of myself--adding strength to the notion that meaning is created by and through conversation and exchange. QED. I wonder too how the experience would have been without the presence of others. Of course, as in a museum, it is rare that strangers talk to one another. I only did so because I knew I wanted to write a piece on SJ that avoided as much as possible solipsism. I'm not sure that one way is better than the other (quiet contemplation or abuzz with exchange). But I do think that some type of solitude (mental/aural) is necessary on the part of the viewer if one hopes to hear the work "speak." Easy to find at SJ; not so easy in a gallery... Thanks so much.

    Posted by Timothy Don on Tue 30 Mar 2010

  • Finding this today has been so satisfying. Three years ago I was returning to California after three years in Minnesota, and I was so thrilled just to be zooming through Utah. I remembered that the Spiral Jetty was in that area, so I pulled off the road to find it on the map. When I saw the distance and remoteness involved, I let go off the idea of seeing it, feeling just a little bummed. I have been looking for it on Google maps, and found it finally today. Your story is so helpful in getting a better understanding of what Smithson was aiming for. i appreciate this hugely. Smithson did another piece I did see--in the Pasadena Art Museum, he brought several redwood corpses into a gallery space. Logs about 5' in diameter and 15' long, i'm guessing. Massive chunks of dead tree flesh, lying in state, it took my breath away.

    Posted by Diana on Sat 19 Feb 2011

  • Went there today. Walked to the end of the spiral and felt like I was standing on the world's edge. Nothing except miles and miles of water and sky. Awesome.

    Thanks for this beautiful piece.

    Posted by Ann Cannon on Mon 16 May 2011

  • I began roaming the desert a couple of years ago, mainly the old railroad bed all the way to Nevada, I never ventured to the "jetty" but I will this weekend to see if I am pilgrim or tourist, maybe to find connection with the creator of this vast open landscape. Thanks for your article it did inspire me to travel to the Jetty.

    Posted by mike belnap on Tue 24 May 2011

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