Deseret News | Don't deface Spiral Jetty's 'canvas'

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Don't deface Spiral Jetty's 'canvas'

Spoc | 5:27 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

Why doesn't the photo accompanying this editorial include the area where the drilling will take place? Because it is so far away as to be insignificant! Most of the photographs of the jetty, except for aerial photos of the lake in general, do not attempt to include everything on the horizon because it is the jetty that they are looking at, not the whole lake.

If the Dia Center wants to protect more than their property from development, let them purchase it along with the mineral rights. Otherwise they have no legal standing to tell others what to do with their land. Actually when the jetty was built there was existing oil equipment much closer than that and the artist reveled in the interesting touch it added to the scenery.

This is the same kind of argument the Kennedy family used when a wind farm was proposed 6 miles out on the horizon which at that distance would be about the size of your little finger nail at arms length. Yes they love the environment and want to encourage someone else to invest in it, but not if it has the slightest impact on their view.

Jazz Fan | 7:22 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

A contemporary artist who tried doing a Spiral Jetty in this politically corrected age of nonsense would be labeled an environmental terrorist.

Where is the Wilderness Alliance when we need them? Why hasn't the shores of The Great Salt Lake been restored to their original pristine beauty? Dosen't this confuse the migrating birds, or make the brine shrimp a little dizzy? Poor things.

Why do the enlightened elite art lovers from the East Coast, marvel, instead of showing outrage about this ugly scare on mother nature? They seem to have enough pull in order to get half of the rest of our State locked-up in the name of pristine beauty. Where's the consistency?

Dave | 8:07 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

Why stop at 4 miles? why not 100? Lets put the SL valley back to its original condition to protect the jetty.

Comments continue below

Get Real | 8:06 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

Four miles? You're worried because an oil rig is going to be four miles away? This is shear stupidity! For crying out loud, it spent twenty years under water where it couldn't be seen by anyone.

We need oil and gas. We don't need to protect some silly, dump-truck-created "artwork" that doesn't generate revenue for the local economy and is seen by, maybe, twelve people a year.

Mike | 8:51 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

Four miles of separation - 21,120 feet. Fourteen of the 1,500 foot Spiral Jetty's could lie end to end between the existing Jetty and the proposed derrick.

I don't know about everyone else, but to me, four miles separation is not exactly like having something built at the end of my driveway. If I drive four miles to the north, I'm in the middle of West Jordan. If I drive four miles to the east, I'm well into Sandy. If I drive four miles south, I'm two miles into Riverton.

Unfortunately, Mr. Smithson chose to paint his art on a billion dollar canvas - that he did not pay for. There has to be a boundary established to his piece of art - at some fair distance - that delineates the borders of his canvas. Four miles seems reasonable to me.

Irony | 9:41 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

Something man-made cannot be within eyesight of something man-made.

samhill | 11:21 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

It is hilariously hypocritical to see the alarm some people show between the possible effects on the environment of drilling for oil versus the deliberate, and probably longer-lasting disturbance caused by an "artist", however intriguing and, to some, beautiful.

I see how and why some people may prefer one versus the other. But to simply label one as detrimental and devastating and the other as “art”, and therefore not only tolerable but noble, without any acknowledgment of their similar disturbing (to the environment) effects, just seems oddly, but not surprisingly, hypocritical.

Finally, when separated by 4 miles (5 according to the Trib.), it's hard to imagine how there could be any effect of one on the other.

Some perspective folks!

Phred | 11:29 a.m. Feb. 17, 2008

The neighboring drilling site is only 1/10th of that distance away (0.4 miles) and Mr. Smithson loved the inclusion of that in the "viewscape".

Oh, he did lease the ground it was built on for 20 years at $100 per year. Unless that lease has been renewed, the Dia Foundation should have it removed and the scar on the mountain where the stone was quarried restored to it's "pristine" state.

But Mr. Smithson only expected it to last 20 years and enjoyed the thought of it's demise as an ardent believer in the concept of entropy and would bid it a fond farewell.

So should we.

Mahonri | 12:29 p.m. Feb. 17, 2008

It is only in the past three years the State cleaned up all the rusting hulks, engine blocks, cables and oil drums(some of them) a few hundred yards to the South of the jetty. Oil wells used to be there and now someone wants to put some in a bit further away.
I don't like the idea but if we don't want the wells, why not buy up the leases and pay the State the projected lost revenue? Art organizations and environmental groups could contribute. Maybe tax the SUN TUNNELS near Wendover. They are 'art' also. Big concrete sewer sections with constellation patterns drilled through them and built by the wife of the dizzy jetty guy.

Marky | 12:31 p.m. Feb. 17, 2008

It's a pile of ROCKS! Put in place by a DUMP TRUCK! This is "art?"

USA needs oil, Utah needs money | 2:24 p.m. Feb. 17, 2008

He the Jedi is great, but I am not persuaded that drilling 4 miles away from the site will hurt it. Besides USA needs the oil and Utah could use the resulting money.

Tumbleweed Tom | 6:11 p.m. Feb. 17, 2008

We need to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Anyhow, the Jetti probably upset the natural wetlands habitat of the lake shore leading to the demise of countless brine shimp, mullosks and other slimates (where's the outrage PETA?!) Since this "artist" has already disturbed the delicate ecosystem (hence no ANWR issue), I think an oil tower right in the middle of the spiral with an oil pipeline spiraling toward shore could preserve the Jetti as long as we need biofuels. Long live Eco-Art!

KDP | 8:19 a.m. Feb. 20, 2008

Do a little research, folks, before you condemn! Do you really want to come across as a knee-jerk? Maybe you do. That oil is of extremely poor quality, difficult to remove AND the company has not posted a bond in case there is an accident. We may need oil to fuel all those macho trucks, but not THIS kind of oil. It is so viscous, that the oil would have to be transported in heated trucks, then heavily refined. There are better places in Utah to drill for this kind of oil. Let them bust their chops elsewhere.

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