SPIRAL JETTY, 1970, by Robert Smithson (32 minutes) color
« This film, made by the artist, Robert Smithson, with the assistance of Virgina Dwan, Dwan Gallery & Douglas Christmas, Director, Ace Gallery, (the aforementioned Dwan & Christmas also assisted Smithson financially with the making of the Spiral Jetty), is a poetic and process minded film depicting a « portrait » of his renouned earth work — The Spiral Jetty, as it juts into the shallows off the shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. A voice-over by Smithson reveals the evolution of the Spiral Jetty. Sequences filmed in a natural history museum are integrated into the film featuring prehistoric relics that illustrate themes central to Smithson’s work. A one minute section is filmed by Nancy Holt for inclusion in the film as Smithson wanted Holt to shoot the « earth’s history ». This idea came from a quote Smithson found … »the earth’s history seems at times like a story recorded in a book each page of which is torn into small pieces. Many of the pages and some of the pieces of each page are missing ». »
From Ubuweb, where a 2 minutes excerpt of the film is available. Un extrait de 4’33 (si, si!) est aussi dispo sur Youtube
Dans 63 heures, on s’envole.
