Comments on: Spiral Jetty Update and Conversation Points http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/ As relevant as Eric Fischl. New York art news, reviews and gossip. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:25:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Foreman http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/comment-page-1/#comment-27827 Foreman Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:31:23 +0000 http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/#comment-27827 Heizer's 'Double Negative' was executed in 1969. Smithson's 'Spiral Jetty' was built in 1970, four years before DIA was founded and one year before the artist's airplane crash. Does Mr Bitterman suggest to hasten the destruction of the SJ and its environment? If Mike Heizer decides to restore his own work, I'm OK with it. If Nancy Holt, Smithson's wife and closest collaborator, thinks that the SJ should not be harmed, I'm also OK with it. Smithson himself claimed that the SJ was a reclamation work: "The artist must overcome the inequities that come in the wake of blind progress."("Proposal," 1972 in Flam, 380). Let me put the record straight. RS was not happy with the junk near his work as working drilling gear; he was delighted at its advanced state of corrosion: "The mere sight of the trapped fragments of junk and waste transported one into a world of modern prehistory. The products of a Devonian industry, the remains of a Silurian technology, all the machines of the Upper Carboniferous Period were lost in those expansive deposits of sand and mud. … This site gave evidence of a succession of man-made systems mired in abandoned hopes." ("The Spiral Jetty," 1972 in Flam, 145-46) What would you say if we didn't maintain and restore Mona Lisa or the temples of Egypt? I don't care about Leonard Riggio's profile. You're not going to let Versailles go down on the pretext that Louis XIV, Napoleon, or Sarkozy are dictators. Incidentally, Dia:Beacon is a former Nabisco plant reclaimed by art. Do you suggest that sick or inappropriate people's deaths should also be precipitated? What kind of "Disneyland" does the oil industry leave behind? I don't want my kids to enjoy your kind of amusement park, Mr Bitterman. What are you doing in a discussion about art if you just don't like (degenerate) art Herr Bitterman? Heizer’s ‘Double Negative’ was executed in 1969. Smithson’s ‘Spiral Jetty’ was built in 1970, four years before DIA was founded and one year before the artist’s airplane crash. Does Mr Bitterman suggest to hasten the destruction of the SJ and its environment? If Mike Heizer decides to restore his own work, I’m OK with it. If Nancy Holt, Smithson’s wife and closest collaborator, thinks that the SJ should not be harmed, I’m also OK with it. Smithson himself claimed that the SJ was a reclamation work: “The artist must overcome the inequities that come in the wake of blind progress.”(”Proposal,” 1972 in Flam, 380). Let me put the record straight. RS was not happy with the junk near his work as working drilling gear; he was delighted at its advanced state of corrosion:

“The mere sight of the trapped fragments of junk and waste transported one into a world of modern prehistory. The products of a Devonian industry, the remains of a Silurian technology, all the machines of the Upper Carboniferous Period were lost in those expansive deposits of sand and mud. … This site gave evidence of a succession of man-made systems mired in abandoned hopes.” (”The Spiral Jetty,” 1972 in Flam, 145-46)

What would you say if we didn’t maintain and restore Mona Lisa or the temples of Egypt? I don’t care about Leonard Riggio’s profile. You’re not going to let Versailles go down on the pretext that Louis XIV, Napoleon, or Sarkozy are dictators. Incidentally, Dia:Beacon is a former Nabisco plant reclaimed by art. Do you suggest that sick or inappropriate people’s deaths should also be precipitated? What kind of “Disneyland” does the oil industry leave behind? I don’t want my kids to enjoy your kind of amusement park, Mr Bitterman. What are you doing in a discussion about art if you just don’t like (degenerate) art Herr Bitterman?

]]> By: Bitterman http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/comment-page-1/#comment-24437 Bitterman Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:41:19 +0000 http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/#comment-24437 Allow me to clarify regarding the DIA Fdn. What once began as an agency of change, a foundation dedicated to artists engaged in projects and strategies that defied commodity status or simply fell outside the boundaries of prevailing market structures, has now achieved its own antithesis as a commodities broker specializing in the reconstitution, reclassification and preservation of trans-historical artifacts. DIA’s reversal of mission was concomitant with its reversal of fortune in the mid-90’s when the foundation was commandeered by entrepreneur Lenny Riggio. One need only visit DIA Beacon, a veritable Disneyland of 60’s and 70’s art, much of it recreated and frozen in time, to appreciate the fact that the market never sleeps, and the dreamer only dreams. While Spiral Jetty will never post returns to anyone’s bottom line, its careful administration (preservation) affords DIA something better than money - profile. (A similar situation exists in the current plans to restore Michael Heizer’s Double Negative and regulate visitation.) And profile, in Lenny’s world anyway, is the best and cheapest kind of advertising. And if that means stopping time, and subverting provenance, then so be it. It’s worth it, as long as it’s worth it. Allow me to clarify regarding the DIA Fdn.
What once began as an agency of change, a foundation dedicated to artists engaged in projects and strategies that defied commodity status or simply fell outside the boundaries of prevailing market structures, has now achieved its own antithesis as a commodities broker specializing in the reconstitution, reclassification and preservation of trans-historical artifacts.
DIA’s reversal of mission was concomitant with its reversal of fortune in the mid-90’s when the foundation was commandeered by entrepreneur Lenny Riggio. One need only visit DIA Beacon, a veritable Disneyland of 60’s and 70’s art, much of it recreated and frozen in time, to appreciate the fact that the market never sleeps, and the dreamer only dreams.
While Spiral Jetty will never post returns to anyone’s bottom line, its careful administration (preservation) affords DIA something better than money - profile. (A similar situation exists in the current plans to restore Michael Heizer’s Double Negative and regulate visitation.) And profile, in Lenny’s world anyway, is the best and cheapest kind of advertising. And if that means stopping time, and subverting provenance, then so be it. It’s worth it, as long as it’s worth it.

]]> By: C-MONSTER.net. » Blog Archive » Mini-Digest: Spiral Jetty edition. http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/comment-page-1/#comment-24333 C-MONSTER.net. » Blog Archive » Mini-Digest: Spiral Jetty edition. Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:43:11 +0000 http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/02/01/spiral-jetty-update-and-conversation-points/#comment-24333 [...] reports on AFC, Looking Around, USA Today, Art to Go, and [...] [...] reports on AFC, Looking Around, USA Today, Art to Go, and [...]

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