Robert Smithson’s 1,500ft Spiral Jetty earthwork.
In 1997, British artist Tacita Dean was invited to take part in the Annual Screenwriter’s Lab at the Sundance Institute in Utah. While there, feeling inspired, she drove out into the sun-bleached Utah desert in search of The Spiral Jetty, a work of art that has inspired countless journeys. Built in 1970 by the American land artist Robert Smithson, at Rozel Point off the north-eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, this mythical work rises and falls from sight, submerged and exposed according to the changing water levels. When Dean made the pilgrimage, she used a two-page fax of instructions supplied by the Utah Arts Council, but today’s visitors can simply punch the location into satnav. They may miss the ‘pink and white truck (mostly white) and an old army amphibious landing craft’ (pivotal markers in Smithson’s day), but at least it’s guaranteed they’ll actually find the swirling mound of basalt rocks and glistening salt crystals, with signposts en route that show the way, and parking when they get there – luxuries neither Smithson nor Dean enjoyed. In 1997, Dean was not as familiar with Smithson’s legend. Today, if you’re one of many for whom art and travel go hand-in-hand, you can now plan your own pilgrimage out west, or indeed north, east and south. Many websites share the secrets of ‘hard to reach’ destinations, making it more easy than hard. Smithson’s
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