How Does Life Work?
Biosphere as an Expression of Spirit
Earth Art
Art based in natural Earth is as old as humanity. Nature is the crucial font of art-making among indigenous peoples. In the so-called First World, aka Western Civilization, the twentieth century, in the 60s and 70s, began to see a rennaisance of Earth Art/Land Art. Some early work, such as Smithson's Spiral Jetty in Salt Lake, was massive and intrusive, and is more a celebration of human power over nature than a response to Earth's life and being.
Happily, about the same time, artists such as Nils Udo and Andy Goldsworthy in Europe and Anne Hull in the US were beginning to develop the concept of artistic collaborations with Nature. Their creations were not memorials made of durable bronze or granite, but rather works, like the creations of all nature, that would exist within the flow of seasons and be as intentionally ephemeral as flowers, or riverbeds.
In other words, Earth Art intends to work in harmony with nature and in some cases to help heal human damage. Lynne Hull calls her work "ecological atonement." Most Earth Art is not a celebration of the human ego, but is more an affirmation of the beauty and power of the living biosphere of which we are one aspect.
More work by some living artists below may be seen on the Artist/Naturalist pages
