{"id":629,"date":"2005-07-05T08:11:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-05T08:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matthewlangley.com\/blog\/?p=629"},"modified":"2005-07-05T08:11:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-05T08:11:00","slug":"more-smithson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/?p=629","title":{"rendered":"More Smithson…"},"content":{"rendered":"

All right I\u2019ve been doing a lot of thinking around Spiral Jetty.<\/p>\n

The first time I traveled over the Salt Lake, I desperately was looking for it \u2013 I never knew it was taking a break. I only knew it by the 10 or 12 photographs that seem to appear in every art text (see earlier post<\/a>). I expected it to be earthy and brown sitting on top of the salt lake. Now it reminds me of one of JG Ballard\u2019s early science fiction novels \u2013 taught, quiet, a little bit oblique, but worth thinking about. Please don\u2019t confuse this with what passes for Science fiction today (soap opera dialog, with updated westerns for plot ideas \u2013 yes there are a few good ones \u2013 please don\u2019t respond about the state of sci-fi today).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been to the art site. I don\u2019t even want to go to Salt Lake City. However between science fiction, the artwork, and the surrounding dominant religion, the site probably resonates really strongly culturally. I can almost see it becoming a \u201cpower vortex\u201d for time travel. Please don\u2019t misunderstand my sarcasm for belittlement. As science fiction movies today have become a bastion of special effects and CGI animation, Spiral Jetty is just the opposite. <\/p>\n

In fact I love the \u201cnew\u201d Spiral Jetty even more. Its come back (after decades of being submerged) \u2013 covered or should I say encrusted with salt. <\/p>\n

The perfect preservative.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: The lake is rising again according to posts all over the net, so it seems like the artwork might be going away (or at least playing hide and seek) for awhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All right I\u2019ve been doing a lot of thinking around Spiral Jetty. The first time I traveled over the Salt Lake, I desperately was looking for it \u2013 I never knew it was taking a break. I only knew it by the 10 or 12 photographs that seem to appear in every art text (see earlier post). I expected it to be earthy and brown sitting on top of the salt lake. Now it reminds me of one of JG Ballard\u2019s early science fiction novels \u2013 taught, quiet, a little bit oblique, but worth thinking about. Please don\u2019t confuse this…<\/p>\n

Continue readingMore Smithson…<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewlangley.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}