Friday, August 31, 2012

Letter to Robert Smithson

Fan Letter:

This crazy dude went out to the Great Salt Lake, pilled up a bunch of rocks in a spiral, but the lake was really low that year so no one has really gets to see it.



Okay Robert Smithson kind of has been an art hero of mine for 20 years or more.  I'm not an art history major, never played on on TV and have trouble stringing together more than a few sentences, but here goes.

Robert:

I've been out to the site of your Spiral Jetty maybe a seven or eight times.  The first three or four were quite disappointing, the tips of a few salty rocks ... who cares.  I care, Rozel Bay is a pretty spot, oh fuck that the most of the lake is amazing.  We camped and photographer around the lake a lot while at school.  It's an intoxicating place, I love it.  I love the light, the heat, the cold, the salt, the wind, also hate most of those things.  Mostly I hate what people have done to the landscape around the Lake.  Not that I'm an environmentalist, I have my sympathies however.  Most of what people have done around the lake is just sad, yeah it can make for interesting sophomoric photographs (I know I made them), but it seems to me what people have done in and around the lake have mostly been failures.  That's sad, the lake sucks up everything we pour into it, and doesn't seem to give a lot back.  Oh well.  I don't know if it was a trip out to the jetty that made me realize what you were doing or some thing I read.  I love that the lake swallow the jetty most years.  The work changes as the lake changes, and it won't be there for ever.  I guess the point is nothing will be here for ever, something to get used to, and that is awesome.

So thanks.

Dave


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