EARTH ART
1968 - Present
"The 'earth' without 'art' is just 'eh'!"
- Unknown
"Ideas must be put to the test.
That's why we make things, otherwise they would be no more than ideas.
There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realisation.
I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work."
- Andy Goldsworthy, Rivers and Tides, 2001
Shaping the Earth
It is fundamental within the mind of man to leave its mark upon the earth. Art has always served as chariot for these mortal ambitions. Prehistory, antiquity and the present day harbor the tenacious efforts of the human species. Deep within the earth and encompassing its surface, the creations of man envelop the world. The artist’s works are offspring of the mind, and like offspring of the body they move our species forward. This interconnectedness of nature and spirit gave birth to the artistic movement known as Earth Art (also known as Earthworks, and Land Art.)
In rejection to the commercialization of art in the 1960s, Earth art sought to blur the lines between natural and manmade elements. In adoration of the planet and its gift of life, these environmental artists abandoned artificiality and embraced the ecological. Naturally sculptural in rendering, work is often in the round and made of materials such as branches, soil, rocks, leaves and water, alongside introduced materials like metal, concrete, and pigments. Nature and manmade materials are inextricably linked in mimicry of our daily environments.
With work ranging from intricate, patterned leaves, to gigantic earth works visible from space, artists like Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson, Richard Long, Maya Lin, and James Turrell shape the earth around them. These sculptures are not merely placed within natural settings, they become the setting. Much like the great ziggurats of old, landscape and creation are one in the same; mankind has made mountains. They erode the walls of the gallery into dust, and in turn showcase the earth as one living, breathing exhibition.
James Turrell
Roden Crater
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James Turrell
Roden Crater
1974- Present
Extinct volcanic crater/observatory
Painted Desert, Arizona
Outside Flagstaff Arizona a volcanic behemoth sleeps. Roden Crater is what remains of an extinct cinder cone. Purchased in 1979, artist James Turrell has slowly turned this mound of earth into one of the most sought after artistic experiences in modern history. The interior is home to a colossal observatory, crowned with a supernal oculus. It was constructed for the viewing of the Winter and Summer solstices, thus establishing the crater as a solar calendar.
Walter Mason
Fall (series)
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Fall (series)
2012
Mixed Media
Stralau, Berlin, Germany
Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy, Walter Mason describes his work as “experiments.” With works that depict the seasons, Walter Mason tries to make people look at nature with a new perspective. Mason juxtaposes geometric designs with the organic elements of the natural world emphasizing the simultaneous complexity and simplicity that can occur in nature.
Andy Goldsworthy
Penpont Cairn
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Penpont Cairn
2000
Sandstone
Lowther Hills, Nithsdale, Scotland, UK
No words needed, but the stone cairn overlooking the valley gives the stone structure a sense of significance, a sense of importance and a sense of power. A sentient guardian, it greets the valley as the valley welcomes it. The structure is eternal, the artist’s gift to the land.
Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty
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Spiral Jetty
1970
Rock, sand
Great Salt Lake, Utah
Choosing this location of Rozel Point in the Great Salt Lake, Smithson sought to reflect the primordial being and the act of entropy in the universe. The coil of the Spiral Jetty is a representation of life, using the red algae and salt to color the black, brackish rocks, and letting the landscape change the piece, with it's fluctuating water levels. You are meant to walk on it and react to it, going from the outside in, like going from insecurity to safety. This iconic work is always in flux, never there for long, and even missing for a few decades, but it remains an achievement in the land works genre.
Maya Lin
Storm King Wavefield
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Storm King Wavefield
2007-2008
This is the largest, the third, and the last of the Wavefield earth works that Maya Lin endeavored. Highly influenced by both the mounds of the Hopewell Indians and the early earth works artists, Maya Lin sought to reclaim the land that had been ravaged by a gravel pit once used for a railway system in New York. She used the existing forms and topsoil that was there to create a sustainable and low-impact ode to nature that allowed water drainage and kept the surrounding areas healthy and green. Maya Lin sought to make something that not only responded to the environment she was working in, but that continued to evolve over time, changing shape, and reacting to the nature around it.
First Run Features
Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art
James Turrell
On Moving Towards a New Landscape
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Trees
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Wrapped Trees
1997-98
Mixed Media
Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Riehen, Switzerland
Wrapped Trees is simple idea with a dramatic image. Leafless trees were wrapped in polyester fabric. During the day, the light’s reflection created an almost silver color off the fabric creating an inflated rock or mountain appearance. As the sun would set, the transparency of the fabric allowed for the skeletal branches to be seen as something reminiscent of the veins and structure of a heart.
Cornelia Konrads
Passage (series)
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Passage
2007
Tree Branches, iron, steel
Germany
German artist, Cornelia Konrads creates gravity-defying installations that give the illusion that time has stopped. Her works, which seem to be falling apart before your eyes, create a mystical effect on the landscape. Konrads’ site-specific installations are meant to merge with the environment, but still surprise the viewer. In Passage, Konrads creates a portal from human’s tamed nature into the raw wilderness.
Andy Goldsworthy
Leaves Laid Around a Hole (series)
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Rowan Leaves Laid Around A Hole
Leaves
1987
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK
Mimicking that of an eye, the leaves tell the story of lives past. The ephemeral nature of the leaves shows that this piece has already moved on, only a photograph remains. The colors are vivid and are alive, though the leaves are dead. However, the area of focus is the deep dark hole in the center, where it’s depth is unfathomable. It draws the viewer in, never letting them go.
Richard Long
Small White Pebble Circles
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Small White Pebble Circles
1987
Marble
Tate Museum, London
Many of Richard Long’s works consist of altered spaces in nature. Here we see Long’s work in a gallery, which removes the oddity in nature and focuses on nature as the oddity in civilization. White pebbles are formed in circles to create a visual similar to a pebble in water making a ripple effect. This allusion to a reversed ripple effect calls attention to the concrete ground of the gallery itself, reminding viewers that nature is the source of everything that is man made.
Gordon Matta-Clark, Michael Heizer, Richard Long
Office Baroque, Dissipate, A Line In Japan Mount Fuji
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1968 to present
While the modern movement began in the 1960's, land art has been around for centuries. The Nazca Lines of Peru are a great example of a people creating something from and with the earth. Today, we judge a society by it's ability to create and sustain great works, and the term great is truly subjective.
Cornelia Konrads
Land Art by Cornelia Konrads