This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As a newly formed collaborative triumvirate of institutions moves forward to protect Utah's iconic Spiral Jetty, an unanswered question is looming: What, exactly, was artist Robert Smithson's intent when he pushed 7,000 tons of black basalt rock into the Great Salt Lake?

"It's a key question," says Philippe Vergne, director of the New York-based Dia Art Foundation that owns the sprawling sculpture. "If you look at Smithson, he was fascinated by process and entropy — matter changing shape and the changes in the life of a form or an organism."

Establishing a dead artist's intent is controversial enough when preserving or restoring art in museums. But it becomes much more difficult when dealing with "earthworks" that are at the mercy of relentless natural forces and human development schemes, Vergne says.

After months of negotiations between the Utah Department of Natural Resources and Dia to extend the lease on the land beneath the Spiral Jetty, an agreement was reached in December. The deal formalized an ongoing collaboration between Dia, Westminster College's Great Salt Lake Institute and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. The three will guide the future of the world-renowned sculpture.

The exact roles in the collaboration are being worked out, but those involved see Dia, the owner of the sculpture and holder of the lease, in a leadership role. Gretchen Dietrich, executive director of the UMFA, foresees the museum and the University of Utah developing art education programs related to the Spiral Jetty and Smithson.

Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake Institute, says the institute will continue its research and education programs for students of all ages in the environment surrounding the land art work. An key role for the GSLI, which makes weekly trips to the area in the summer, she says, will be simply keeping a close eye on the sculpture's condition and any development in the area, including oil drilling or other mineral extraction.

"We are going to try even harder to connect the people of Utah to the Spiral Jetty," Baxter says.

Any changes to the status quo would likely accelerate discussions about what Smithson had in mind when he created the 1,500-foot-long spiral of boulders in 1970. Smithson was killed three years later in an airplane crash while scouting for another earth artwork in Texas, but had written thousands of words about his art, and the Spiral Jetty in particular.

"He had a lot to say," Dietrich says. "But it was very philosophical and out there. It wasn't a recipe, so to speak, to follow at all."

Key to Smithson's art was the concept of entropy — that nothing remains the same and instead moves toward a state of disorganization or chaos. But applying that to the Spiral Jetty isn't simple.

Smithson built the sculpture off Rozel Point in the northwest arm of the lake, knowing it would be submerged in times of high water levels only to re-emerge years or decades later as it did in the early 2000s — covered with salt crystals. Last spring, the Jetty was again submerged under lake waters. That transformation is one of the things that makes the Spiral Jetty so emotionally powerful, Baxter says.

"Smithson would have loved the changes the jetty undergoes," she says. "Every time it re-emerges, it's another gift."

But was Smithson also open to human-caused encroachment on the sculpture through industrial development, tourism or even vandalism? The area around the Jetty over the years has experienced cattle grazing, exploratory oil drilling, brine shrimping and what some see as a misguided clean-up. That effort removed much of the debris, junked vehicles and a trailer, that judging from photographs, delighted Smithson.

Vergne, who says Smithson was fascinated by the "post-industrial landscape," acknowledges that any preservation plan for the Spiral Jetty would trigger a heated discussion among art experts.

Decisions on how to respond to oil drilling or other development in the area will be addressed on a case-by-case basis by convening experts on all sides of the issue, he says. And before any major preservation of the work were to be attempted, he would like to see a symposium of art scholars convened.

"Should we preserve the context exactly as it was?" Vergne asks. "Or should we acknowledge the jetty has changed over the years? It's a complex question."

gwarchol@sltrib.com; facebook.com/nowsaltlake —

The future of the Spiral Jetty

What • A public meeting about the Spiral Jetty will be held Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at the Salt Lake Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City.

Information • Visit http://www.dia.org or http://www.robertsmithson.com