Earth in focus: the complex sculptures of land art and their 'big picture' effect, as seen through the lens of photography and film (1960s - 1970s)
<p>This dissertation focuses on previously unstudied material of the films and photographs of Land Art – or Earth Art, as it is sometimes interchangeably called – in which the reciprocal relation between the Land Art sculptures <em>in situ</em> (earthworks) and lens-based media is...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | Dutch German English |
| Published: |
2020
|
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | <p>This dissertation focuses on previously unstudied material of the films and photographs of Land Art – or Earth Art, as it is sometimes interchangeably called – in which the reciprocal relation between the Land Art sculptures <em>in situ</em> (earthworks) and lens-based media is considered. It introduces the notion of ‘complex sculptures’, sculptures that are not only site-specific, located within the landscape or in an exhibition space, but also time-specific, mediated through photography, film, and even television. The complex sculptures of Land Art are thus shown to incorporate both a mediated and phenomenological viewpoint. </p>
<p>I present new archival material to re-evaluate Land Art, especially given the abundant use of lens-based media by the artists of early Land Art, which is linked to the socio-political circumstances of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The importance of a decentring dynamic in the Land artworks is pointed out and related to the ‘primary humility’ that certain critics perceived in Land Art. Not in the sense of a sublime experience that overwhelms reason completely, or as a ‘back to nature’ experience, but through a channelled experience of multiple, constellational elements. It is thus shown that the artists of Land Art were seeking ways in which <em>both</em> presence and absence, ‘presentness’ and distance, would become components of their aesthetics through their search for a continuous relationship between their artworks on-site and the distancing and displacing functions of different media, like film, photography and television. This dialectical constellation of elements is directly bound to the ontology of Land Art (or: its ‘conditions of possibility’), an ontology that points to a search for a different worldview: one that is interested in ‘the bigger picture’ of the relation of human beings to our planet, as well as in a growing awareness – through lived experience – of the intrinsic <em>reciprocity</em> of our lives.</p>
|
|---|