The story of art goes back to the narratives of human civilizations. The element of time has been the crucial factor,
a bracket that keeps dodging its transgressive nature. The attempt here is not to look at its overwhelming forms
and appearances, ideologies, and the multiple time frames that it has existed in; but a few decades preceded by
the second world war. Post-war art is a broader framework and a historical category that works as reference
points to locate contemporary practices within the ecological interests/ concerns/ crises.
Earth Art/ Earthworks/ Environmental Art/ Land Art, is a genre of artistic practices that arguably emerged in the
late 1960s in America. It was rather a tendency made visible in the practice of artists, moving beyond the
conventions of the white cube and exploring possibilities out there in the world. The early nineteenth century was a
drastic change, that in the following century concretized the autonomous and commodified existence reflected in
artistic productions. The existing definitions, of painting and sculpture, were put to test, extended, squizzed, pushed,
and questioned. The ’70s were a turbulent time, a period of drastic change. The Vietnam War, the Civil Rights and
Black Power movements, the Second Wave Feminism, and the Queer Rights movement instigated the questions of
ethics and aesthetics.
Ana Mendieta (1948-85) was a Cuban-American artist, one of the many artists experimenting with the then emerging land art, body art, and performance, known for her earth-body sculptures. She often used her body to explore and connect with the earth. Her techniques, primarily influenced by Afro-Cuban traditions, draw from her history of being displaced from Cuba that focused on the issues of race, violence, identity, death, and feminism.
One of the pioneering interventions in the history of earthworks/land art is Mary Miss’s (1944) 1978 work, Perimeters/Pavilions/Decoys. Her artwork incorporates architectural materials like wood, metal, concrete, etc to speak about situations emphasizing a site’s history, its ecology, or aspects of the environment that have gone unnoticed. An ensemble of related installations, this public work is on the fringes of architecture, landscape, and sculpture made within and outside the earth; half atrium, half tunnel, and a delicate structure of wooden posts and beams.
Robert Smithson’s seminal artwork, Spiral Jetty, is built on the
northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah.
This 15,000 feet long and 15 feet wide work is made up of Basalt
rock, salt crystals, earth, and water. The visibility of the work
depends upon the water level of the Great Salt lake. The high
amount of salt content and presence of algae and bacteria gave
a specific red and pink color to the water that also allowed
Smithson to establish the connection with the primordial sea. The
chosen site is also a major industrial site and this work over the
years has been of major significance in mapping the geological
changes in the area.
An important work in the history of both Land Art and Conceptual Art,
A Line Made by Walking, by Richard Long is a result of the artist
walking on a field of grass to and fro resulting in flattening that
particular surface. Long then took a photograph of the act from a
particular angle, documenting the result. In one of his best-known
early works, Long’s practice is crucial as he established that a simple
act of walking could also be art. Also widely popular in the category
of sculpture, this work is instrumental in collapsing the already
existing categories of art and intertwining with the emerging new
forms of Performance, Land Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art.
The history of Earth Art/ Earthworks/ Environmental Art/ Land Art is
guided by pioneers like Nancy Holt, Richard Serra, Robert Morris, Alice
Aycock, Carl Andre, Michael Heizer, and many more. The
interventions by these artists are a rupture in the way art was
conceived, made, and received. A major shift in the processes of art
making that has altered the way we respond to and interact with our
surroundings, with nature!
