I've been working on this show for the last year. In the fall I really decided to go for it and just focus on the salt around the lake. I'm so enamored with the Great Salt Lake and all its imperfections, beauty, and even horror. The salt is brutal, it's hard on plants, animals and the land surrounding the lake. It changes every day, nothing stays forever even the lake which in it's hayday used to cover almost the entire western half of utah. This show was the love child of my sciencey love affair with biology and geology, I just wish I could understand the math! If I did, you'd be reading about my science degree!
Anyway onward!
Artist Statement:
The Great Salt Lake is often misunderstood and described as being a dead lake; there are a lot of misconceptions about the role the lake plays in the northern Utah community. Economically the lake brings in over a billion dollars from hunting, fishing, bird watching, mineral and shrimp extraction, and tourism. One contributing factor to the beauty of the lake is its high salinity. In some parts the lake is over 28% salinity, which is above the saturation point. This causes salt and minerals to deposit along the lakeshore, on rocks, boats, plants, and in some parts even crystallizing on top of the water. The relationship of salt to the surrounding land is profound; sixteen hundred square miles of saltwater and forty miles of salt flats provides a rich ecosystem for many types of animals, provides inspiring views, and is incredibly useful to us. The vast salt quantities of the lake are not what make it dead, but rather what make it uniquely and diversely alive.
-Laura Fox