Local folk lore says that
there are only two man-made things that can be seen with the naked eye from
space. One is the Great Wall of China, the other is the Bingham (now Kennecott)
Copper Mine. Although this is totally a myth (you can see lots of man-made
things from low Earth orbit) it speaks to the vastness of the mine and its
impact on people living near it.
The Copper mine is a big
open pit mine that is a few miles south of the Great Salt Lake. It has been in the news recently because of a huge
landslide that has caused the mine to close for a year. It is almost
incomprehensible because of the scale of the slide and the mine, like a scar
dug deep into the mountain. I know that we all need copper, I am using it right
now in my computer, but it is very shocking to see the damage that man can do
to the landscape.
I work at an art museum and
one of our docents was telling me about her hometown where she grew up. It was
named Lark, but it doesn’t exist anymore. The mountain that the town was on
doesn’t even exist anymore. The Copper Mine displaced the town and the people
who lived there. The mine affects my view of the beautiful mountains, but at
least for now it hasn’t consumed my hometown.
The copper mine and its
impact has been on my mind lately. I have been thinking about what copper is
used for, and how I can use it. I would like to do another structural piece of
jewelry like the Halite Necklace and Salt Bracelet I made last year. They were
very fun to envision and knit.
So, this recent landslide in
Kennecott made me think of copper. What is the structure of copper? Can it be
translated into a knitted structure? What about knitting with copper wire? I
think I am going to do some experimenting.
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