There I am. Standing in front of a permanent land art installation. Did I say permanent? A basic idea with land art is that it’s supposed to be temporary. Make art from material found at site, stack stone, weave branches, put cones in a groovy pattern. And so forth. In early July the European Land Art Festival was held in Scotland. Stacking stones featured prominently on the agenda. When the creations have been photographed and thereby recorded the makers are encouraged to take them down.
Does land art have a place in “normal” garden design? Well, if you like the idea of change, I would certainly say so. As suggested above land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs. And then let it go.
Having said so, in my mind the definition of land art is open to interpretation. For example, sole focus can be put on the second half of the sentence above. That is, making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs. And let it remain.
0121-1110=116045 is made by Korean artist Jaehyo Lee. It featured as part of Gothenburg Green World 2016. It’s assembled from pieces of chestnut wood, polished and shaped into a round, warm circular shapes almost 3m high. The polished surface contrasts with the coarse intersections of knots and barks. Not quite in tune with using local material, this grand design, made up of hundreds of parts was assembled in Korea and shipped to it’s current location. Which happens to be the Gothenburg Botanical Garden. As I said, interpretation is where it’s at.
