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Earth Art

Earth Art. Smithson & Christo. Robert Smithson. Gifted prolific writer, whose essays about Great Salt Lake creation made it one of the most famous and romantic of all earth works. Fascinated with entropy - the rate at which matter decays. Smithson.

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Earth Art

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  1. Earth Art Smithson & Christo

  2. Robert Smithson • Gifted prolific writer, whose essays about Great Salt Lake creation made it one of the most famous and romantic of all earth works. • Fascinated with entropy - the rate at which matter decays.

  3. Smithson • "Irregular beds of limestone dip gently eastward, massive deposits of black basalt are broken over the peninsula, giving the region a shattered appearance. ... Under shallow pinkish water is a network of mud cracks supporting the jig-saw puzzle that composes the salt flats. As I looked at the site it reverberated out to the horizons, only to suggest an immobile cyclone while flickering light made the entire landscape appear to quake. A dormant earthquake spread into the fluttering stillness, into a spinning sensation without movement. This site was a rotary that enclosed itself in an immense roundness. From that gyrating space emerged the possibility of the Spiral Jetty" R. Smithson

  4. Spiral Jetty 1970 • Curl of bulldozed rock, built on Great Salt Lake, Utah. • Projects ¼ mile into the brine, and can only be seen as a whole from the air. • Lake rose and drowned it, making the work impermanent - spiral form of gyre can be seen as expanding or contracting • Spiral is oldest form of labyrinth - associations to archaic forms found in the ruins of eastern civilizations (the stupa of ancient Buddhist India)

  5. Spiral Jetty 1970 • The work is inspired by the site itself, and a myth from the early settlers. • The lake was thought to be connected to the Pacific (salt water) through underground waterway, the presence of which caused whirlpools at its center. • The curl & extraordinary colours: pink, blue, and brown-black, offer aesthetic delight, but he was also interested in occurrence of decay & reclamation. • The site contained industrial ruin - wreckage from oil prospectors, and its own natural corrosion.

  6. Spiral Jetty 1970 • Curl of bulldozed rock, built on Great Salt Lake, Utah. • Projects ¼ mile into the brine, and can only be seen as a whole from the air. • Lake rose and drowned it, making the work impermanent - spiral form of gyre can be seen as expanding or contracting • Spiral is oldest form of labyrinth - associations to archaic forms found in the ruins of eastern civilizations (the stupa of ancient Buddhist India)

  7. Christo • Bulgarian origin, learned the Marxist-Leninist treatment of subject matter typical of Communist block countries (Socialist Realism) in Sofia, at the Art academy (mid 50's). • Fled the ardent Stalinism of Bulgaria to Prague first, and then Paris. • In early years made a living painting portraits, & met his wife that way. • In Paris he shed his Slavic name Javacheff, & began to wrap • Started with smalll objects & took on greater & greater projects. • Editions of small wrapped items (i.e. magazines, flowers, etc.) used to fund early larger projects. • His art is an event

  8. Christo& Jeanne-Claude • He's a populist; he believes people should have intense and memorable experiences outside the galleries & museums. • His work is impermenent - momentarily intervenes between earth sky & water to refocus our impresesions. • Scale Temporary nature gives them more energy and intensifies the responce • All expenses for the temporary work of art were paid by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models and original lithographs. • Sites are restored to their original state, and materials are either donated or recycled.

  9. Work: Running FenceDate: 1972-76

  10. Running Fence • Completed in 1976 • Running Fence is 5.5 meters high / 40 kilometers long • On the private properties of fifty-nine ranchers, following rolling hills and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean.

  11. Running Fence The art project consisted of: 4 years of collaborative efforts, the ranchers' participation, eighteen public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a four-hundred and a fifty page EnvironmentalImpact Report.

  12. Running Fence • Made of 200,000 square meters of white nylon fabric, hung from a steel cable strung between over 2,000 steel poles • All parts of Running Fence's structure were designed for complete removal and no visible evidence of Running Fence remains. • The removal of Running Fence started fourteen days after its completion and all materials were given to the ranchers.

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