a rippling surface

 Robert Smithson. Spiral Jetty. 1970. Rock, salt crystals, earth, algae; coil length 1500'. Great Salt Lake, Utah.

















Bridget Riley. Song of Orpheus 5. 1978. Acrylic on canvas, 6'5" X
8'6 1/4". Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.













The works are completely different in color, size, medium, and execution but they share many subtle qualities. Spiral Jetty is an earthwork. It's made from earth, rock, salt crystals and algae. It's displayed in nature. It's meant to evolve with nature. It's organic in nature. The spiral is a symbol of life. It comes in two's, positive and negative. Visually it continues on, but we do know there is a halt, an end, a disruption. This work disrupted the lake to an extent but it is meant to live with it now, changing over time.  The water outside ripples and that inside is calm and level. It draws on the balance we must find in life. External turmoil and inner peace, water and earth, beginning and end, we must balance it all. The work is monumental in size, but the subtle details are what breathe life into it. The glistening shimmers show in violets, pinks, and reds.
Pink, blue, lavender, and golden ocher are the colors that flow through Riley's Song of Orpheus. Here the details are what make the piece monumental. Each line of color alone has an effect that is nearly nonexistent in comparison to the piece as a whole. The movements of the ribbons of color ripple like the water outside of the spiral in the Spiral Jetty but it also soothes and calms like the water inside. It's optically appealing with deceptive simplicity. The size of the piece contrasts its quiet design. It consumes and consoles. The music the movement exudes is sensuous and alluring even.