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Quiet Catastrophe: Robert Smithson’S Spiral Jetty, Vanished, Clark Lunberry

English Faculty Research and Scholarship

Maps to Nowhere: Seen from above, Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty emerges dramatically from the rocky shores of Utah's Great Salt Lake. Like a swirling vortex steadied and then stilled, the earthwork begins as a straight line of stone extending far into the water, the form then curving, arching and coiling in upon itself until abruptly coming to an end. Rocks and boulders are seen in various shapes and sizes, with brown soil packed and flattened within the spiral, making a broad path that one might walk upon. The water washes upon the earthwork's shaped shores, surrounding and filling it, a …