There have been many questions surrounding the famous Spiral Jetty that resides in The Great Salt Lake in Utah. Because it is art and it lives in the lake does that make the Great Salt Lake a museum or did the artist intend for Spiral Jetty to eventually erode to show some artistic concept? Well, I think that Spiral Jetty is not a museum. This is because if the artist wanted it to be preserved he would have left some writing behind that said so and that we should try to keep it from disappearing. Also he would have put it in a better and less corrosive place. The Great Salt Lake is a very harsh environment for anything really, so my conclusion has to be that the artist meant for the work to represent some type of transcending truth about the temporary nature of life.
Of course the argument that Spiral Jetty is not a museum raises the question of “what about national parks?”. Believe it or not there is a very simple answer to this. Spiral Jetty was man made by an artist with a specific reason in mind when he created the design. However National Parks were created naturally over millions of years and because they cannot be moved they have to be preserved. Also there is no one who can say that they were created for a particular reason to represent something therefore we must take care of them for future generations.
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I completely agree with you on the subject that the Spiral Jetty is not a museum but just public art placed in the Great Salt Lake. Yes if the artiest wanted his art to be preserved he would have told someone or left it in writing. But he didn't do that.
ReplyDeleteYour description of a national park makes a lot of sense because in my view a national park was just reserved land with special aspects people wanted to preserve.