1 / 18

Earth Art

Earth Art. Smithson & Christo. Robert Smithson. Gifted prolific writer, whose essays about Great Salt Lake creation made it one of the most famous and romantic of all earth works. Fascinated with entropy - the rate at which matter decays. Smithson.

Download Presentation

Earth Art

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Earth Art Smithson & Christo

  2. Robert Smithson • Gifted prolific writer, whose essays about Great Salt Lake creation made it one of the most famous and romantic of all earth works. • Fascinated with entropy - the rate at which matter decays.

  3. Smithson • "Irregular beds of limestone dip gently eastward, massive deposits of black basalt are broken over the peninsula, giving the region a shattered appearance. ... Under shallow pinkish water is a network of mud cracks supporting the jig-saw puzzle that composes the salt flats. As I looked at the site it reverberated out to the horizons, only to suggest an immobile cyclone while flickering light made the entire landscape appear to quake. A dormant earthquake spread into the fluttering stillness, into a spinning sensation without movement. This site was a rotary that enclosed itself in an immense roundness. From that gyrating space emerged the possibility of the Spiral Jetty" R. Smithson

  4. Spiral Jetty 1970 • Curl of bulldozed rock, built on Great Salt Lake, Utah. • Projects ¼ mile into the brine, and can only be seen as a whole from the air. • Lake rose and drowned it, making the work impermanent - spiral form of gyre can be seen as expanding or contracting • Spiral is oldest form of labyrinth - associations to archaic forms found in the ruins of eastern civilizations (the stupa of ancient Buddhist India)

  5. Spiral Jetty 1970 • The work is inspired by the site itself, and a myth from the early settlers. • The lake was thought to be connected to the Pacific (salt water) through underground waterway, the presence of which caused whirlpools at its center. • The curl & extraordinary colours: pink, blue, and brown-black, offer aesthetic delight, but he was also interested in occurrence of decay & reclamation. • The site contained industrial ruin - wreckage from oil prospectors, and its own natural corrosion.

  6. Spiral Jetty 1970 • Curl of bulldozed rock, built on Great Salt Lake, Utah. • Projects ¼ mile into the brine, and can only be seen as a whole from the air. • Lake rose and drowned it, making the work impermanent - spiral form of gyre can be seen as expanding or contracting • Spiral is oldest form of labyrinth - associations to archaic forms found in the ruins of eastern civilizations (the stupa of ancient Buddhist India)

  7. Christo • Bulgarian origin, learned the Marxist-Leninist treatment of subject matter typical of Communist block countries (Socialist Realism) in Sofia, at the Art academy (mid 50's). • Fled the ardent Stalinism of Bulgaria to Prague first, and then Paris. • In early years made a living painting portraits, & met his wife that way. • In Paris he shed his Slavic name Javacheff, & began to wrap • Started with smalll objects & took on greater & greater projects. • Editions of small wrapped items (i.e. magazines, flowers, etc.) used to fund early larger projects. • His art is an event

  8. Christo& Jeanne-Claude • He's a populist; he believes people should have intense and memorable experiences outside the galleries & museums. • His work is impermenent - momentarily intervenes between earth sky & water to refocus our impresesions. • Scale Temporary nature gives them more energy and intensifies the responce • All expenses for the temporary work of art were paid by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models and original lithographs. • Sites are restored to their original state, and materials are either donated or recycled.

  9. Work: Running FenceDate: 1972-76

  10. Running Fence • Completed in 1976 • Running Fence is 5.5 meters high / 40 kilometers long • On the private properties of fifty-nine ranchers, following rolling hills and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean.

  11. Running Fence The art project consisted of: 4 years of collaborative efforts, the ranchers' participation, eighteen public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a four-hundred and a fifty page EnvironmentalImpact Report.

  12. Running Fence • Made of 200,000 square meters of white nylon fabric, hung from a steel cable strung between over 2,000 steel poles • All parts of Running Fence's structure were designed for complete removal and no visible evidence of Running Fence remains. • The removal of Running Fence started fourteen days after its completion and all materials were given to the ranchers.

More Related