Agraria

Over Thanksgiving Break, my family took my grandmother out to this restaurant in Georgetown, DC for her 70th birthday called Agraria. The food was all from local farmers and the restaurant had a very natural, calming ambience. I think this had a lot to do with the art on the walls. An artist named Maxwell Mackenzie shot all of the photos on the walls in the restaurant. He took a much different approach than we have been taking throughout the semester in order to find Earth Art. Instead of finding a nice day to walk around his city, he actually went up in a helicopter over vast areas of land in the midwest to see what he could find. Here is some of what he found:

While the idea of intentionally making Earth Art is really interesting and much more thought or statement can be put into it, I find the idea of unintentional Earth Art even more so. On such a large scale, the people altering the land in these ways for their livelihoods probably have no idea what their land looks like from above. I wonder if Mackenzie took these photos to any of these farmers. Not knowing that they're creating art and then creating something this beautiful in a habitual way out of necessity makes these photos really beautiful and insightful.

Here you see the preoccupation of the farmer with time and cycles and how it fits into his daily life. This reminds me of a quote from Lippard's text: "The origins of time and of counting seem in turn to lie somewhere in between the cycles of the Earth and the moon (with the human body as its medium) and the lines of journey, a life, towards change" (77). The human body here is the farmer, and his dependence on the cycles and the subsequent necessity of routine in planting, growing, and harvesting his crop can clearly be seen from such great heights. I wonder what the farmer's perception of their land is... do these farmers think about what it looks like from above? Or do they just think of the soil, the time, the energy, and the closeness to the Earth that they feel in such a deep understanding of its intricate processes?

More of Mackenzie's work can be seen at: http://www.maxwellmackenzie.com/markings.php

Proyecto Final: Putting Thanksgiving back into the Earth

My Earth Art project is based on a statement on archaeology and material studies of culture such as those referenced in the last chapter of Overlay. I was inspired by the natural organic form of foods made sacred by ancient civilizations that are described in relation to their artistic form and meaning in this chapter. For example, the European corn dolly (Lippard, 210) that signifies the form of woman and is constituted by the importance of wheat in their culture. Another example is that of food, women and ritual that appears many times in both the text and in ritualistic beliefs around the world. There is one particular line from this chapter in Lippard's text that struck me and helped me develop this project: One of Jody Pinto's works placed on a cliff was destroyed in a storm, and she created something new from it in light of its destruction. "The artist's pain at the destruction of her creation had been used for a new creation--a true metaphor for immortality" (Lippard, 200).

I decided to combine the themes of food, ritual, decay and rebirth derived from this chapter in order to create a project that would be telling of our culture and of archaeology and how our modern world may be interpreted 1000 years from now. I also decided to combine Earth Art and ecological art "with its emphasis on social concern, low profile and more sensitive attitudes toward the ecosystem" (Lippard, 229). I wanted to create something that would have a positive, though small, effect on the Earth to possibly counterract some other act of destruction my presence on this Earth may create. Thus, my project consists of three parts:

1) Art and Still life
2) Earth Art
3) Giving back to the Earth

Thanksgiving is an enormous part of American culture specifically, and I decided to use the organic remains fro cooking Thanksgiving dinner as my medium. First, I began with what the remains were before they became remains. I arranged the fruit and vegetables into a fruit tower that would be used to create art in a painting class: the traditional "still life" painting. This is a significant art form in our culture.

Over the course of cooking the Thanksgiving dinner, I collected the organic remains. The following day, while my own body was still digesting the feast from the night before, I went outside with my bowls of remains and created Earth Art. I created it on an open space of dirt, suggesting its growth and the place from where the remains were derived. I focused on the four directions on the form of the installment, which is an image used in many cultures and art forms, representing the cardinal directions in many cases, but in this case, in order to represent the four seasons. My lines were coordinated to North, South, East, and West, using a compass. There are examples of both in Lippard's text, page 214. Growth of fruits and vegetables are based on cycles and seasons, and it is significant in our culture and current situation that we are able to purchase summer vegetables and fruits during virtually every season of the year. The fact that tomatoes were incorporated into our Thanksgiving dinner in November is very representative of out globalized world and expectations of availability in our supermarkets year-round. This is why the tomato forms the center of my piece:
The next phase of my project is giving back to the Earth in the form of compost. Composting has been a significant part of my life--something I've done with my family since I was very young. We've ordered plenty of shipments of red worms--the best for making fertile dirt--in my day. This is a very nostalgic act for me, and for me, giving back to the Earth is of great importance. Nostalgia is another topic of Lippard's that has interested me. See post on "Nostalgia" in the beginning of my blog. The third phase of my project also seeks to make a statement about material studies and archaeology here organic materials are concerned. This part was inspired by works created by Michele Oka Doner in the 1960's. "Her interest in the ruins of prehistory lies in 'more than the art...it's how people lived, what they were like, and what remained after they left" (Lippard, 209). We measure the beginning of tool use in our species based on discoveries of stone tools. How long were they using sticks, an organic, biodegradable material, before then? How much insight into human past has been lost with the loss of organic materials and how those had played into their lives?


When I give these organic remains back to the Earth I am creating fertile dirt that will be spread somewhere next year. The interesting (and devastating) part of our culture and society now is the fact that everything we buy comes in plastic packages--something that will take hundreds of years to degrade. Though the organic materials will decompose, leaving hardly a trace of what was eating at our 2008 Thanksgiving feast, the plastic bags will be left behind as evidence of the existence of fruits and vegetables. We don't have such solid evidence of the civilizations past, and thus we see the difficulties that archaeologists have in interpreting a very scattered, mostly decomposed past.

I left my Earth Art outside for three days before I was forced to disassemble it (it was in my mom's yard at home over Thanksgiving break). On the third day, I went back out to see if there had been any changes to it. It looked just as it did before, probably due to the conservation abilities of the frigid cold air, except the tomato that formed the focal point of my piece was gone. You can see a trace of where the animal entered, as the asparagus tips have been moved around a bit, but the only item of interest was the tomato. I hope there is a racoon or deer out there somewhere having a pleasant feast.

Decay

Kate, 2007, Place unknown. http://auntiekate.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/such-gay-holiday-wrappings-such-disgusting-trash/

Decay is a natural process that can act on Earth by Earth, Earth by man, and even man on Earth. I think the second is of the most important to us these days, as we rely on Earth's ability to decay our millions of tons of trash and waste that we are constantly dumping onto its surface. This is something that man expects out of the Earth. Would we create trash dumps like we do without the expectation that the Earth and its natural processes would eventually take care of it? Decay of buildings is one thing, but decay of metal, plastics, and other manufactured materials is entirely another.



Cape Royds, 2006, Seth White. www.sethwhite.org

I think that the definition of Earth Art can go both ways, as long as it has both elements of man and art inherent within it. It can be man creating something with elements of the Earth, or Earth moving in on something created by man. If I had had more time in this class, perhaps if it were a semester-long course, I would have liked to do something with decay as my final project. Below is a house I saw in Croatia. I think the decay and nature involved in this picture is just stunning...


Plitvice, Croatia. 2008. Jessie Krafft and Trip Estes

My Artsy Neighborhood

For this assignment, I decided to take a walk in my own neighborhood, searching for different types of Earth Art. I tried to get shots of both intentional and unintentional Earth Art. The first thing I saw, just as I stepped out onto my front porch, were the massive trees that tower over my neighborhood. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with these trees. They are beautiful, and enormous trees for living in the Fan. Just the other night I saw a raccoon up in one of them. They are so enormous, though, that they jut into the street, and they make parallel parking a hell of a time. I now have a number of scratches on my car. No matter though; I'd rather have them there than not. Many of them have started taking back the sidewalk, and the root systems are growing into the street. This, as I see it, is unintentional Earth Art. Man has had a hand in this, but the tree has taken over, tearing up the sidewalk in its wake:



A bit further down the street, I stumbled upon this house. It is further down may road than I usually go, and I am just elated at this find. The most obvious part of its Earth Art are the installments of old wooden branches placed randomly through the yard. It stands apart, not only in its unusual shape, but because of its unique decoration. There are natural stones lining the street, and tall grasses decorating the front. I wonder where this person had to go to collect all of this wood. I wonder what the neighbors think. I wanted to knock on the door to ask what inspired them to create this installment in their yard. I wonder if they know that it is Earth Art or if they were just being quirky. Either way, it is interesting and one of the most perfect examples of Earth Art I've found in Richmond.






I walked a bit further after that and saw another interesting house that had planted some sort of vine with dark purple bean pods growing on it... it was beautiful. I'm really excited to go home next week to my parents house, because my mom is an avid gardener, and her backyard is just filled with numerous examples of Earth Art. She even has similar style to the house that I found above. She arranges interesting pieces of wood through her gardens... I will post after I go home next week. I was so surprised to find these examples of Earth Art so close to my home... especially the second example. I wonder if they created Earth Art intentionally...

Smithson's Mirrors...

I read the majority of Jennifer Robertson's article on Smithson and the travelogue from the 1800's that he "mirrored." I think I found it most interesting how little he took notice or saw importance in the ancient architecture he was surrounded by through his journey. Most any other person may have made that the focal point of their work, especially since at that time, it was much less touristed than it is today.

To me, this was an appropriate and very dramatic way of undoing Stephens' work. Each aspect of the project--the half-covered mirrors in these very culturally important sites, the ways they pointed--were all very intentional, making very specific statements against the unethical, anthropological nightmare that was Stephens' work.

Artist Unknown, Tulum Ruins, Yucatan

Moving along with the tombstone as Earth Art topic...after Tuesday's class, I began to wonder if the use of cairns that seems to have been prevalent in ancient burials eventually transitioned into our use of tombstones to mark the graves.

I'm really interested in the anthropological aspect of Earth Art, being that I am an anthropology major, but this doesn't necessarily mean prehistoric Earth Art to me. I like understanding the origins of certain customs and behaviors, such as my question above. I really think the article by Jennifer Roberts about Smithson's travelogues will be interesting to me because of that... not to mention I'm also a Spanish major so the Maya and the Yucatan happen to be my forte. I will write again once I've finished the article.

Poulawack Cairn, Ireland, 3400 BC, photographer unknown.

Nostalgia

I was struck by a particular line in the Introduction to Overlay: "The simplest explanation for contemporary artists' current attraction to ancient images, artifacts, and sites is nostalgia--not only for those periods we imagine offered a social life simpler and more meaningful than our own, buy also for any time when what people made (art) had a secure place in their daily lives" (Lippard, 4).

This is meaningful to me as an anthropology major, for I have stumbled upon this concept a number of times through my studies. Historically, anthropology has had a vested interest in the"primitive," which has been a negative thing in many ways because in many instances it has turned into a colonial endeavor. Interest in the primitive people in anthropology is similar to Lippard's description of ancient art in the interest in the simplicity of the past.

I think I want to explore this idea of nostalgia a bit further, especially because I can relate it to my own field of study. This brought me to wonder: Would cemeteries and tombstones, if they are of natural stone, Earth Art? I would say so. Visiting a grave site is a nostalgic activity, whether you know the buried or not. In sites such as Hollywood Cemetery, there are many interactions between Earth, man, and nostalgia. This is also interesting because there are many ways to bury, burn or dispose of the dead throughout the world. I think I'll go to Hollywood to take pictures sometime during this class.

Ed Deasy, "Anonymous Grave," Maryland, http://eddeasy.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html