tires by Mina Estevez
From the artist -
The original photo was of some debris left from oil exploration off Rozel Point, northern Utah, near Robert Smithson's famous work, Spiral Jetty (in fact much of the material under the "westerns" category on my website is of, or around, the Jetty). These industrial ruins were of great interest to Smithson and contributed, along with the red water of the Northern Great Salt Lake, to his choice of the site. One could argue that as part of the place, they were part of the work: for the 30 odd years the Jetty was submerged under the lake, this wreckage was one of the ways interested pilgrims could gauge they were somewhere near the site. A nearby pink trailer, left behind by the Pixley Oil Company was tagged over the years by visitors who, prior to 2002, never even saw Spiral Jetty.
Sadly, that's all gone now. And thus an important part of the experiential nature of Smithson's work has been erased. I'm only glad I was able to document as much as I was between 2002 and 2006.
