Documenting Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson's iconic earthwork Spiral Jetty (1970) is a 1,500-foot-long and 15-foot-wide coil of local basalt rock and earth that extends into the red waters of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. In a 1972 interview, Smithson suggests that Spiral Jetty was intended to both withstand and be "intimately involved with the climate changes and natural disturbances" of the site, particularly the lake's fluctuating water levels. Other conditions that have been observed over the years include erosion and sand and silt deposits.

Conservation of this earthwork is particularly challenging given Spiral Jetty's unpredictable environment. Baseline documentation and a system to monitor Spiral Jetty's condition were necessary before any conservation treatment could be considered and developed. In March 2009, Dia Art Foundation, which acquired the work as a gift from the Robert Smithson Estate ten years earlier, approached the Getty Conservation Institute seeking a simple, consistent, and cost-effective means of documenting the work for possible conservation.

In May 2009, the Conservation Institute partnered with Dia Art Foundation to document Spiral Jetty using aerial balloon photography and other techniques.