Spill

I guess I could call my final project that, if I had to name it. "Spill" makes me think of oil and open oceans but it is the way I made my project-which had nothing to do with oil, by the way.

So this is where I did my project. It's the Reedy Creek entrance to the James River.

As I walked from the parking lot, across the railroad tracks and through the the gate, I picked up whatever earth materials were around. I carried some in my hands and put the rest into these glass bottles. The bottles are "found art." The third bottle from the left, what I call the pirate booze bottle, I found on Wreck Island off the eastern shore of VA. My class was doing an International Coastal Clean-up and the bottle was full of sand, shining like a oil spill in a dune. The little, squat one on the right I found off Fitzhugh Avenue along the banks of Horsepen Branch during the Extreme Stream Makeover clean-up and restoration project in October. It was 99% drown in mud but I saved it and brought it home with me. Interestingly, I found more abandoned glass while I was setting this up (I saved it too, just in case you're wondering).

I collected the rocks and pebbles from the railroad tracks and grasses from the open area before the woods where I picked up some leaves. The clover was growing in a little spot along the bank. The twigs and branches I found by climbing around. The pirate booze bottle is full of sand from the creek's edge and the squat bottle is full of dirt, just as they were.

The idea for this project came from many of my environmental science classes. The idea is basic: everything weathers to base level. In reality, this is often the ocean because base level=sea level or the point at which you can't go further down. So this project is pretty simple. I'm representing base level as the creek/river. But realize even this area is connected the ocean.

This is my final project:

My favorite angle: the view as the movement towards the water.


The breakdown:

I took my bottles home but I did end up leaving everything else-mostly for the curious kayakers who watched me playing in the dirt, "making art."

Boulas

These pictures are from Costa Rica on a private island called Isla Del Cano. The people that used to live here thousands of years ago used these to mark graves in line with the sun. Some are small but most are so huge that to this day, nobody knows how they were made and how they were moved to some of the higher points.

Eco-Art

Tim Pace's website

http://www.ecoartbytim.com/

I didn't realize until after doing this presentation that the final project that I've had in mind has been found art.

http://www.greenmuseum.org/

Just click on artists at the top to see a list of artists with a sample of their work. There is a really interesting variety of performances, sculpture, a LOT of photography and a bunch of other things.

Project

So I'm still working out the details of my project. It'll involve things in this picture (their stories later). Unfortunately, what I had originally wanted to do I can't do, so I'm modifying a skosh. I'll be at the James River this weekend to assemble the project and take a few pictures. I'm not going to leave it there though.

XXArt

I just finished reading the intro and chapter 2 of our textbook. A couple things that stood out to me...

Art = moments of tension, reminders of what is absent (history, unconscious, social justice, beauty, fear, wonder). This makes sense. What would be the need of creating something (art) if it were already present by looking out your window? Sometimes people consider art to be critique, but again, if there is a need to re-examine, then there must be an absence of something, a missing piece.

Effective art is a vehicle for understanding (a motion from ideal > idea > action >reaction). It must be communicated and responded to, not controlled or absorbed. I thought this piece was interesting. I think I've either seen a lot of "uneffective" art or I have a really bad habit of absorbing art and having an extremely limited, controlled reaction. Either way, I'm not understanding much of what art is trying to tell me.

Female culture attempts to integrate art+life, idea+sensation, nature+culture and women are synthesizers, mediators, fusers.





I have poor sense of humor. Ok, now seriously. When I read this I thought of my mother. Mainly because she is the most visible female element of what I've been surrounded by longer than anything else, my family. She is the link between father+children, possibility+reality, innocence+wisdom.

Male culture represents the domination of nature. I found it insanely interesting that men, according to Lucy Lippard, are responsible for:

• ecological disasters
• pollution
• disappearing water supply
• world hunger
• overpopulation
• nationalism
• miltarism
• greed

Damn. I'd also like to tack on cramps and bad hair days. Anybody else think that list is a little ridiculous? For example, overpopulation...it takes two to tango. And it's actually overpopulation (not the Y chrom) that is straining our water supply, food distribution and environment and leading to competition and fighting over space and limited, localized resources because our planet has a carrying capacity, believe it or not. Even if Lippard didn't mean "men" in the literal individual-with-penis sense, but more the culture the have created, I still think this is a angry exaggeration.

An "X" on the earth is a favorite motif of male artists. Hmmm. Just thought this was a curious observation. Territorial, maybe?


Dennis Oppenheim. Relocated Burial Ground. 1978
Mirage Dry Lake, CA.
Black asphalt primer. 2000' square.

For more examples, pg. 52

The Zuñi Indians thought that clay represented female flesh and only women were allowed to work it. This meant that these women not only made the pots and bowls we normally think of, but also built homes. Some people believe that women invented crafts, architecture, medicine and animal husbandry.





Two Zuñi girls.







This last bit, I just thought was cool: the idea of a passageway between our world and the spirit world and the symbolic center of the universe, the omphalos or navel of the earth.

The cone-shaped dome at Delphi was the sanctuary of the Earth Mother (a figure I'm only familiar with through feminist fantasy literature, weird genre right?). Delphi meant uterus. And the supposed navel was a cleft in the rock that housed the waters of wisdom. The Incan capital, Cuzco, means navel. Other omphalloi are found in Celtic sites and the Temple of Jerusalem. I think the idea is that civilization is tied to a nuturing navel of the earth, just like a child is tied to its mother.

Delphi


Peru

On the Lookout

I had some errands to run this morning and I decided to walk around and search for earth art in the very very urban part of Richmond where I live. I didn't find much and I'm not sure if what I photographed even counts.



This didn't come out like I had hoped but this tree is growing along Broad Street. I liked the way the trunk and roots have this bulbous, flowing texture. It reminded me of this picture of a basaltic lava flow.



Not sure why though...


You see these sprawled out all over the walls of alleys in Richmond. I liked this one in particular because this leafless vine has a dark halo against a pale, washed-out wall. It stood out with this menacing aura and I couldn't stop looking at it as I was walking by.


Found this on Grace Street. It sort of reminded me of a cairn although I doubt it was meant to be. Some elements were natural and some were man-made articles weathered by nature. Kind of a working man's front porch still life.

A closer look.

Again, not sure if this is art, but i like the distressed feel and the peek-a-boo flowers. I also like the mystery of not knowing whose bench this is anymore.

I've actually never been out west, or to a desert for that matter. But ever since I was little, I have always been fascinated by the colors and myths. I like that these places are arranged carved by wind, water and sometimes volcanoes.

Examples of Earth Art

"There is a long history to the formation of mounds of earth. Some have served burial and other functions, while others have been made for entirely aesthetic reasons. An example of the latter type is the Mud Man sculpture in The Lost Gardens of Heligan of Cornwall, England. Its soil supports various plants, carved stone [or are they cement?] ears, and glazed ceramic eyes."
-Michael Delahunt
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/e/earthart.html


Artist Richard Botto uses river stones as raw material for sculptures such as this flower cluster surrounded by mushrooms.



Sprial Jetty





Andy Goldsworthy's "Stone River" was constructed by English masons using traditional dry-stone techniques.

Andy Goldsworthy, one of Two Oak Stacks, 2003, two large balls of stacked and knitted oak sticks

Untitled work. Painted cracked clay.

Artist: Borisa Sabljic

For more information on the artist, her inspiration and the difficulties of this project, see http://www.somethingcreative.ca/?p=467

Definition of Earth Art

There are two ways that I can think to define "earth art." Both represent a marriage of geology and art. It can either can be very very ancient or extremely fresh and new. From that idea, I think it's possibe to have art that is not created by humans or humans in an prehistoric form. Most earth art would be composed and displayed outside. Earth art may also be referred to as "earthworks" or "land art."

Some earth art is art by the earth, sculpted by natural phemonmena and discovered by us. Basaltic lava flows along the ocean and fossils arranged in sedimentary strata revealed by erosion are two good examples.

Another type of earth art, one that is made by people, is art of the earth. Some examples could be mudbrick buildings, clay sculptures, stone carvings or styling forests, farmlands and fields in shapes.

Eco-art brings an environmental awareness to the table. Artists may use recycled materials or earth-friendly paint. I think the purpose of this perspective to ask the audience to reexamine how we view the environment and how we interact with nature. The goal, I believe, is to create a new awareness and sensitivity to environmental problems so that they may be addressed.
(http://www.eco-art.org/) for more information and examples.