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ART by Katherine Kormendi |
What is environmental art? Earth art? Land reclamation projects? Work that calls attention to ecological issues? Or work that reminds us of our own inner connection to the earth? The sites I've selected cover different ways in which artists are responding to environmental questions. Environmental art is just getting online--there will be more to come!
1. Contemporary Ecological Art and Perspectives on Nature by Matthew Brackett. Comprehensive, fascinating essay tracing development of environmental art from Smithson's Spiral Jetty to Ukeles' garbage installations. Writing dry, visuals gorgeous. Gives you an understanding of historical and philosophical context. Don't miss link to Wildernet!
2. FloraList's "Art-Environs"
This index of links on Environmental/Outsider Art hooks you up to everything from Boston's Museum of Bad Art to Andy Goldsworthy's stunning sculptures made from leaves, rocks and snow. Get past the inane and irrelevant (avoid Burial Ground listings!) and there's lots of fabulous stuff to be found. Make sure to check out Hilary Frost-Kumpf's article on reclamation art--one of the best! -- plus Nine Mile Run, Arcosanti, and Hazards of Noise.
3. Dia Center
NYC's prestigious center for avant-garde art- initiator of "extraordinary projects" including De Maria's major earthworks and Beuys' 7000 OAKS PROJECT. Not all art here is environmental--but site is top-of-the-line: elegant, richly informative. Zero in on "Longterm Projects" but don't miss "Worlds Envisioned" or Ann Hamilton's "tropos." Both have ecological resonance.
4. Center for Advanced Visual Studies
MIT's technoart learning center includes links to artists working with geothermal design (Dell), holographic images from nature (Dawson), urban sound environments (Janney) and "cosmological" installations (Prince). Only 30% of artists mentioned are relevant to our topic--but worth the search! Site frustrating to plow through--lots of garbled technospeak.
Oxford University center for innovative visual art projects--Projects range from giant buoy made out of hull metal from a decommissioned Soviet submarine to series of riveting watercolors of mutant insects from Chernobyl. Provocative work! See Beuys Lectures.
Also see: Land Art, breathtaking slides of everything from cave paintings to "sculptural" bridges--hint: each image, fully enlarged, has a number at end of url- this is the slide number for that image. / The Art of Light and Space awesome intro to James Turrell's early work, unfortunately nothing about Roden Crater project--his big enviro work-in-progress. / Christo and Jeanne Claude great visuals, informative, controvery surrounding work side stepped however. / SolArt Global Network international artists/architects using solar energy in their work championing sustainability. / Agnes Denes' Tree Mountain magical!