Can art, oil mix? Spiral Jetty friends think not

To read the Dia Art Foundation's recent press release, it might seem like Canadian-based Pearl Exploration and Production Ltd. is about to declare war on the late artist Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, located in Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Spiral Jetty is a 1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide coil constructed in 1970 of mostly basalt rock that connects with the shore of the lake near Rozel Point.

By 2002 and in years since, repeated lower lake levels in the area have provided spectacular views of Smithson's work, rising up through highly saline water that is sometimes a deep shade of pink, made so in part because of the man-made railroad causeway that isolates part of the north side of the lake. About the only life waters north of the causeway can sustain are microbial halophiles.

Pearl's proposed drilling for oil approximately four miles away from Spiral Jetty will "disrupt the viewshed" for the artwork, introduce the potential for increased noise pollution and "degrade the natural environment" around Smithson's piece, Dia officials state.

The Dia release says drilling also would introduce toxins and chemicals to the "delicate saline water and wetlands that surround the lake." If there was a toxic spill, "the proposed operation would cause irreparable damage to the lake environment and threaten the physical integrity of Smithson's extraordinary sculpture."

Although past drilling activity in the same area yielded only a tarlike product that was heavy, high in sulfur and costly to refine, today's high price of oil is driving Pearl's pursuit of drilling near Rozel Point, and it already has a legitimate lease with the state to do that, said Jim Springer, spokesman for the Utah Division of Oil, Gas & Mining. Phone calls to Pearl for comment were not returned Wednesday.

Laura Raicovich, Dia's deputy director, said in a phone interview Wednesday that her group is trying to make a strong and unconditional case for the Spiral Jetty, which Dia was gifted in 1999 as part of Smithson's estate.

A letter from Smithson's widow, Nancy Holt, also an artist, has been posted on blog sites, accusing officials of trying to slip drilling contracts under the radar and urging people, particularly from foreign countries, to get involved in opposing Pearl's proposal.

Reaction has been fierce during an extended public comment period, which ended Wednesday. Dia even provided a form letter for people who "adamantly oppose" Pearl's application to drill exploratory boreholes.