land-arts.com is a catalog of my current land art documenting the ideas, processes, events and materials that make up the land art works. Feel free to contact me or leave comments here.
In the past, I have simply photographed my land art. The next level was to produce a DVD of my work as that medium would allow a wider audience to experience art created in and with nature.
I have been wondering for some time now how I would be able to work with ice in my land art, living in Brisbane (average temperature for this time 25C) there isn't much chance of it snowing. Then it fell from the sky - a fairly big storm passed over the area where I live and dumped hail for 6 mins.
One of my early works explores the harmonic patterns in nature and their underlying mathematical foundations. As a graphic, this design works because it is a repetition of 3 - in the number of spirals in the main shape, 3 flowers adjoining and 6 buds that ran diagonally through the work. I am sure the number of petals on each flower would be a pattern as well.
While I was working on this piece I was conscious of pulling out reeds and altering nature to produce the land art. My philosophy is only to create art that is sympathetic to the landscape and highlight the inherit design in all aspects - from the artwork components to its surroundings. The land art focuses people's attention on an environment that is often taken for granted.
This would have to be one of my favorite works to date. Working with sand or dirt as a medium is like working with paint or any other liquid as it has the same 'fluid-like' properties. If you make a mistake and the land isn't completely dry, you cannot rub it out as the grains get into the soil. On the other hand the fluidity makes it such an expressive medium both to work with and to observe its return to the original state over time.
This work was created in a forest area grown for commercial timber use. The specific area was a 4WD trail that winds its way through the trees and past a river - a recreational track. There had been a recent clearing for a camp site and all the timber was left burnt and scattered all over the forest floor.
The idea behind this work was to create a shape that would reduce down to a defined pattern in the same way that you can reduce or increase a fractal image - once again an exploration of "maths" in design. It was extremely difficult to remember the number of iterations and manage the distance to complete the pattern because the site was on a slope and my initial layout was blown away.
This work was created in a pine forest north of Brisbane . The actual site for the work was just off a sandy 4WD track and in this particular section, rain would collect at the bottom of the track and then flow down into a river.
Sometimes when doing this type of art, nature gives you a lot of materials but no canvas to work with and other times you get a huge canvas and no materials. In this case I was lucky to get both in the one site. This location is a creek called "Eatons Crossing" on the outskirts of Brisbane.
The old saying that " there are no straight lines in nature" really applies to this work. Being near water is a natural inspiration to create these curves.
The shape doesn't necessarily represent the way a river winds through the landscape but rather the flow of forms that occur near the river - water streaming, rocks that jut out of the landscape, the way the water and rocks meet - this shape is repeated everywhere. It is in the top of clouds against the blue of the sky, the top of trees against the sky, the way ants walk in a line, the way rocks crack under pressure, the squiggle patterns you find in gum trees..
It is interesting to see how we overlook things in the natural world. The whole river was covered in color however because the leaves are spread out we are unable to see the pattern. When the leaves are placed next to each other, the contrast is inspiring.
This is another personal favorite of mine. The location is again on a dried-out salt bed though this time, the elements were harder to work with. The top layer of salt was so brittle that my shoe left heavy indentations so I had to work entirely from the side closest to the camera.
This is one of the more recent works that I have created - exploring the idea of straight lines in nature. The wood came from a tree that had been knocked over in the process of creating 4WD access. Just getting to this location takes 1.5 hours through muddy grassland trails and the area for the work itself is a tidal zone so water regularly covers this whole space.
Water has carved its way through these rocks for thousands of years etching these shapes through the massive solid stones. Water is part of a fascinating process - something that we consider soft and tranquil is eroding stone- something we perceive as solid. The elements are a total contrast and yet the gentle element has more strength.
