Ordinary mortar, that stuff you see holding bricks together, is being used to create an abstract desert scene at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
"I would like (people) to get a feeling of a natural landscape - something that doesn't happen in the city," said artist James MacBeth, who designed and is constructing "Utah Sandscape" on the west side of a pedestrian bridge."It carries people into another environment while still in an urban area."
MacBeth, a Weber State University art professor, is coloring the mortar with pigments in Utah red-rock colors - primarily red, orange, yellow, brown - to make the artwork. The mortar itself is three parts sand, one part cement.
There is a bit of green at the top of the sandscape, which represents Utah's sparse vegetation. Imbedded designs suggest Utah landmarks such as Delicate Arch.
Utah Sandscape replaces another work of the same name that MacBeth made in the same spot five years ago. That version consisted of 8-inch-square glass pieces, each holding sand and held by an epoxy frame to the underlying concrete.
But yearly freezes and thaws made the sand expand and contract, damaging and loosening the glass, and it became apparent the work wasn't going to last long.
"We thought it would be better to do it now than wait for the thing to fall down," MacBeth said.
Another 5-year-old glass-encased sandscape adorns the east side of the bridge. MacBeth plans to replace it next spring.
The new and improved sand-scapes will cost about a third of the $30,000 original work's cost and should last 30 years.
"I'll be dead by then," the 63-year-old MacBeth said.
The mortar is held in place by a wire frame attached to a galvanized metal cloth, which in turn is attached to the underlying concrete. MacBeth began the design last summer and the actual work in October, using bricklayers' trowels to apply the material.
Unlike other art projects, which MacBeth designs but that other people build, he's constructing this one on his own with only one assistant.
"This is an answer to all those people who say the artist is not doing his own work," MacBeth said. "I'm doing all this by myself, thank you very much."
(By the way, the plaque attributing the work to "James McBeth" was not incorrect at the time it was installed five years ago. The artist changed his name last year to the original Gaelic spelling.)