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
2 comments:
I think this is something that is very unique to earth art. Almost everything that is put on the earth will at some point decay, some faster than others. I always like it when Mr. Birchett says that time is circular and should not really matter. The pictures you have posted here do a very good job at showing no matter how much work or effort is put into something the earth will eventually reclaim what belongs to the earth.
Right now I'm in the process of creating my own art for the final project and it's amazing to see how the project decays from day to day. Once I post my final project I think it will be very obvious how it decayed over the few days that I have been taking photos.
I think this is a very good point on Decay. If you didn't know, there is a very large portion of New York and New Jersey trash that comes down and is dumped daily in a landfill in Petersburg, VA (about 20 miles south of RVA).
I also recently read about a giant plastic island floating in the pacific. Basically, there's a spot in the pacific where all the major currents converge, and tons of plastic and trash have converged there and bonded. The last article I read said that it was TEN TIMES the size of Texas, and that nothing can be done to dismantle it - we can only use less plastic to slow down it's growth.
Great post!
Michael
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