Environmental Sculpture: Nature, Art, Ecology and Society

- draft for an article in the "Adam Olam" Magazine

Megalithic Stone Row, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Although the concept of 'Environmental Sculpture' is an invention of the late 20th century, its focus on how human beings can creatively get involved with the natural environment has been a major concern of human beings for thousands of years. Prehistoric cultures and tribal societies venerated landscape - rivers, mountains and trees as well as wind, rain and the stars - as a symphonic whole animated by spiritual presence. Sculptural monuments like the stone circles and stone alignments of the megalithic culture were carefully integrated into this living fabric and orientated to specific landmarks and the movement of sun, moon and star constellations during the year.

The nineteenth century and the Industrial Revolution brought almost total estrangement from nature. The artworks of western civilisation became detached from any living context, tucked away in sterile museums and galleries - homeless children of an intellectual and analytical consciousness which was no longer capable or even interested in grasping any living wholeness. Our current ecological crisis is a direct outcome of this mode of thinking which sees nature as a mere commodity and resource for exploitation.

Richard Long
Line Made by Walking
1967

Artists reacted to this loss of context  by concentrating on the only kind of integrity they could still rely upon - the inner lawfulness of the artistic elements of colour, line, form and space. In an attempt to grasp the spiritual essence of colour and form, artists resorted to ever more reduced, minimalistic creations.

Land-Art, or Environmental Sculpture, was born at and out of this moment of utter reduction, as it were, on the edge of nothingness. One of the first and perhaps most pivotal works of Land-Art was 'Line Made By Walking', created in 1967 by the British sculptor Richard Long. It consists of a straight line, brought about by the artist repeatedly and intentionally walking back and forth on a South West England meadow. This seemingly banal work breaks with many well-honed art traditions. It replaces the narrow restrictions of studio and gallery walls with the open natural landscape and, instead of presenting a refined aesthetic product, promotes the artist's primal, wilful activity of walking the land as a potent agent of creativity. With this it also reiterates Paul Klee's claim that "all creation derives from movement". From this pivotal point onwards, Richard Long has been walking the globe, over mountains and deserts, leaving behind him humble, ephemeral traces on the ground in the form  of straight lines and circles. In these works an exciting (although not utterly new) realm of exploration opened up for him and the following generations of environmental artists: how many different ways are there to create a straight line in a landscape and how does each of these lines interact with the specific landscape setting, the topography, specific landmarks, changing weather conditions and so on? Just because the form is so simple and universal ("it belongs to everybody" as Long remarks), its 'site-specific' placement and orientation can speak in a very articulate way - not about itself, but about the place where it appears.

Andy Goldworthy, another British pioneer of Environmental Sculpture, started his career by escaping art school and becoming a naturalist: sleeping outside, waking with the dawn, walking bare-feet, splashing in the water and digging in the mud. He felt the urge to expose himself to the elements, explore and play like a child. "When I began working outside, I had to establish instincts and feelings for Nature. I needed a physical link before a personal approach and relationship could be formed." This immediate, physical, "hands-on" relationship to nature enabled him to develop new sensitivities and organs for nature.

Andy Goldsworthy - Willow Sticks with Water Reflection, 1988

"Willow Sticks with Water Reflection" (1988) is a good illustration of his working method. He often remarked, that, as an artist, he has no personal message to express. It is only by meeting the particular situation, that his artistic imagination begins to work. In "Willow Sticks", what we see is the result of a cooperation between the artist's creation and the reflecting properties of  water. This ingenious invention clearly was inspired by the place itself. So in one way, Goldsworthy makes us aware of what anyway already exists in the place. On the other hand, he applies principles of composition, of centre and periphery, of straight and round lines in his delicate, ephemeral and aesthetically pleasing construction. With this he subtly offsets natural beauty with a creation penetrated by human consciousness, awareness and care.

Although the early masters of Environmental Sculpture did not explicitly place their works into the context of the growing environmental crisis, their research, their sensitivity and their careful interventions made a mayor contribution to a beginning shift in environmental awareness. They helped us to "see what is there" and provided striking examples of a more empathetic relationship to nature and the possibility for a truly mutual cooperation with nature. In the last two decades many environmental artists have expanded their practice by more explicitly addressing ecological concerns. This included for instance the artistic design of ecological water treatment plants and projects creating bio-spheres in urban areas.

Axel Ewald - Forest Broom, 1994

Axel Ewald - Shifting Fences, Germany, 2000

My own involvement with environmental sculpture started in England in 1989, when I attended a conference on "Sculpture and Landscape" which included as speakers all the mayor environmental artist of the time, including Andy Goldsworthy. I immediately identified in their search something akin to the holistic approach to nature introduced by J.W. von Goethe (1). Goethe, whose scientific writings formed the epistemological basis of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science, had pursued his scientific studies of nature by employing the whole tool set of human faculties, including what he called "exact imagination", in order to grasp the wholeness of nature. Parallel to conducting Goethean Science workshops together with the Biologist Margaret Colquhoun, I started to create my first environmental sculptures. Creating artworks in situ, in an ongoing dialogue with places, their history, their material and animated fabric, for me became an exciting artistic challenge and a fitting way of answering Rudolf Steiner's call to artists:

"Painfully our Mother Earth has become mineralized. It is our task, through the work of our hands, to transform her into a spirit-filled work of art." (2)

Axel Ewald - Back to Earth - Environmental Sculpture
using waste materials, Wadi Nisnas, Haifa, Israel, 1999

Roundabout - Environmental Design Project
of students at the Artways Training Centre, Kibbutz Haruduf, 2011-12

Some of my projects attempted the "healing" of neglected places in more urban contexts, like the "Roundabout Project" in Kibbutz Harduf. The site was an empty "void", before it became transformed in the course of a communal environmental design project by a group of art students studying art in the "Artways" training in Harduf. This project included a thorough research of the situation, interviews and community participation in the execution.

Environmental Workshop
Michael Hall School,
Forest Row, Sussex, UK, 2012

In recent years environmental sculpture for me has increasingly become linked with the question of community involvement and social processes. Two years ago I was invited by Michael Hall Rudolf Steiner School in England to conduct an environmental sculpture workshop with the college of teachers. This workshop led to an ongoing working process in which I guided a group of teachers in a communal design process, focussing on a problematic part of the school campus. During this process we arrived, by consensus, at various design solutions, including an environmental artwork which will be constructed in a community effort this coming autumn (3).

One of the striking feed-backs, repeatedly given by participants in such workshops, was that the communal effort, apart from restoring the individuals' bond to nature and nurturing understanding for the fragile fabric of landscape, seems to have a healing effect in the social realm. Sharing our intimate observations and insights as well as participating with each other in creative work on the land can culminate in a first, humble hint of what is a lofty goal for the future of humanity - "Social Sculpture" - a non-material artistic form-creation between human beings (4)

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(1) for an excellent introduction into Goethean Science: Bortoft, H. (1996). The Wholeness of Nature.  Edinburgh: Floris Books

(2) quoted from a speech given  by Rudolf Steiner celebrating the opening of the Malsch Experimental Building in 1913

(3) for more about 'consensus design' see previous blog from Oct. 2013 and the book by Christoper Day: Day, C. (2003). Consensus Design, Socially Inclusive Process.  Oxford: Architectural Press

(4) for more about 'Social Sculpture' see the previous blog from Nov. 2013

Floating Sails

-  A Social Sculpture Exploration at Brookes University - December 2013

So, here I am back, finally updating my blog with reports about events from the (not quite so) distant past.

For my final presentation concluding the semester I attended at the Master's Course in Social Sculpture at Brookes University I chose to work with the theme of 'connected-ness'. I wanted to create an installation which would convey an experience of how we - in spite of our distinctive and often conflicting egos - are connected by (invisible) threads; connected to each other and to a larger context which is beyond our finite, temporal existence - and yet dependent on us . Sometimes we can get a hint of this mutual inter-relatedness.

Shortly after I decided on this theme I had a dream, in which I saw (and heard) something like a beating, radiating heart in the centre of a dark space. People, all of whom were connected by some means to this beating centre, were moving around this heart. Some time after this dream I tried to capture this image in a drawing:

This initial image had to go through a number of metamorphoses until its materialization in the final installation. For the participatory installation I decided to involve the group of students and tutors I was studying with. As I wanted people to pick up their own 'threads of inter-connected-ness', I had to make these recognizable and specific to the individuals. Over a period of three weeks I drew 25 portraits of all the people whom I thought might come to the event. These drawings were to be placed on the floor for people to find and pick them up. Each drawing would be connected by means of a thread / string to some kind of kinetic sculptural configuration in the centre of the space. This sculpture would  be very 'responsive' to any manipulation of the threads.

The final sculptural installation was constructed of triangular frames made of willow branches which were holding thin, semi-transparent paper sheets. These 'sails' were suspended from longer willow branches in the fashion of a kinetic mobile. 25 threads were connected to strategic points of the mobile allowing participants to manipulate the movement. With so many 'strings attached' the coordination of the individual movements would be very critical in order to avoid complete chaos and I was very anxious about how people would be dealing with this.

When the group entered the dimly lit installation space on the morning of December, 10th the only instruction they found was the following note:

In the beginning people were somewhat confused and hesitant but soon began picking up their drawings. Then followed a long pause of intense silence with participants standing in a circle around the motionless central installation.

At last some of them plucked their courage, tentatively pulled their strings - and the dance of the sails began. I cannot say for how long it lasted - it was an experience of utter timelessness and magic. People operated their strings with skill and restraint, creating moments of silent communion.
The following video clip was recorded before the actual event (that means without the people). It gives an impression of the effect of the symphony of floating 'sails'. As background music I added a piece from the "Eight Japanese Folk Songs, composed by Vic Nees and performed by the choir I am part of (Kolot HaSadeh Choir, conducted by Anat Aharoni).

Late Autumn Images from the British Isles

I am sharing with you some more photographs which I took during these last days of autumn. Next week winter is supposed to arrive with freezing temperatures and possibly some snow ...

(click to enlarge)

Revisiting Pishwanton

- the Centre for Goethean Science and Art at Pishwanton Wood, East Lothian, Scotland

A week ago I spent a few days up north in Scotland, re-connecting threads from the distant past, when Ephrat and myself were living in Haddington east of Edinburgh (1991 -1994). One of the reasons was to visit the Pishwanton project. As an example of a site for the practice of alternative ecological and artistic methods of working with the land and educating people for a more sustainable future it is of particular relevance for me as part of my PhD research project. I had myself been involved with this piece of land, having been part of the first landscape study sessions in 1992 with biologist Margaret Colquhoun and architect Christopher Day. But I was still amazed and moved when I saw that one of my drawings from 20 years ago features on the new Pishwanton Wood leaflet:

the latest Pishwanton Project leaflet

Margaret Colquhoun, my long-time friend and colleague, has been instrumental in creating the vision for this project and she is also running it on a day-to-day basis.

Margaret with Toffy, the dog, in the Pishwanton jeep

In the leaflet Margaret outlines her vision for Pishwanton and the aims of the project:

Pishwanton Wood is “a place for learning in living in harmony with the land,'on the edge' of landscape, of life, of science, art and of cultural practice”.

The project is dedicated to the study and practice of Goethean Science with a strong emphasis on education, therapy and the development of new organs of perception.

view from the herb garden
towards the craft building

"At Pishwanton people explore both the inner and outer journey of discovering life and landscape, through the activities of perceiving, reflecting, and doing. This way of working with both one's inner and outer nature simultaneously, and of raising to consciousness the processes of perceiving and reflecting as a precursor to doing provides a meditative path of spiritual development ...”

Pishwanton Wood, 60 acres of semi-neglected land, a microcosm comprising a diverse mix of Lowland Scottish habitats, was purchased by the Life Science Trust in 1996. The site bears evidence of a long history of human involvement, including an Iron-age burial mount.

up-to-date map of Pishwanton Wood

the 'snake path' leading towards
the animal barn

I was very moved to see how the place has evolved. It no longer feels neglected, everywhere one experiences the caring hand of human beings. Many trees have been planted, invasive vegetation in previously impenetrable areas has been thinned, paths have been created, an orchard with fruit trees has been planted, a large herb garden has been laid out in the inner 'heart space' of the site, beautiful willow fences have been constructed to separate the meadows where cows, sheep and goats are grazing from the garden , and, last but not least, a number of carefully planned, ecologically designed buildings have been erected. All these transformative activities stem from the same source: a profound dedication to the land, the study of landscape, of materials and processes through the methods of Goethean Science, the application of Goethean Science to 'Consensus Design' (a community design method developed by Christopher Day), and many, many hours of work dedicated by volunteers from many countries.

"Insights are transformed into creative action, which may unfold in a variety of ways from medicine making to garden design, poetry, art or building an eco-building in the landscape.”

building the barn

creating willow fences
for newly planted trees

Pishwanton Wood is

 is open to the public as a community wood and serves as:

- an outdoor classroom  

- a research laboratory 

- a place for 'creative play' 

- a case-study for landscape restoration 

- a home for the development of interactive communities of plants, animals and human beings 

- a show-case for illustrating a sustainable way of living for the future 

- a base for the practice of educational and therapeutic small-scale agriculture

Margaret and David

A variety of different groups of people have visited Pishwanton for different lengths of time and grades of involvement. These includes people who are searching for an in-depth study and the application of Goethean Science, volunteers of a variety of ages, often people at a turning point in their lives, searching for new orientation and meaning, students of the Schumacher College MSc program, art and architecture students interested in ecology and consensus design, local people with disabilities working in Pishwanton on a weekly basis, high school students from the UK and abroad on voluntary work placement as well as casual visitors.

the new Goethean Science building

inside the science building

In Spring 2013 the Goethean Science building was inaugurated. It comprises a generously designed teaching space, a small kitchen, a toilet and facilities for the processing of herbs. As all the other buildings on site it was designed by Christopher Day, following an intensive on-site community design process. A number of further buildings have gone through the design process and received planning permission. This includes a large building with community kitchen and dining-room and a caretaker flat (the 'seed-building') as well as chalets for on-site accommodation of visitors and course participants. The first chalet is scheduled to be built in 2014.

sketch by Christopher Day of the planned 'seed-building'

I am adding here a few photographic impressions of Pishwanton Wood, taken on a crisp November Day with beautiful Eastern Scottish autumn light (click to enlarge):

And, to conclude the report of my visit to Pishwanton Wood, a short video clip. It includes scenes from the video "A beautiful day in Pishwanton" by Helmut Kohn and Gisela Kress.

for further information - the Pishwanton Wood website:
http://pishwanton.org/

New "experimental drawings", mono-prints and etchings

Since the last post about drawing I have created some more works in response to input by a variety of different tutors in the "Experimental Drawing" class. For the following series of drawings the assignment was to choose an object and draw it once as a 'unique', singular object and then, in another drawing, to explore the possibilities of repetition or multiplication of the object. I chose a small clay sculpture of a tower in the form of a pyramid. In my mind this turned into a mixture between skyscraper, tower of Babel and the leaning tower of Pisa ...

Three drawings - charcoal

In another assignment the tutor introduced the idea of the Haiku, the minimalist Japanese form of poetry, where a series of simple images from nature are juxtaposed with each other, without creating a story-line, leaving a kind of interval between them for the imagination to create the connection. The tutor had brought some autumnal branches and suggested to utilize this poetic principle for creating a series of drawings. 

Three drawings - charcoal

In my series of drawings I gradually moved from a representational, three-dimensional representation to something more abstract and two-dimensional, playing with three distinct elements: lines, tonal surfaces and concentrated, small patches. I also became interested in an additional effect which I discovered accidentally when I tore off a piece of cello-tape, and with it a layer of the paper. I then rubbed charcoal into this 'wound' which created interestingly textured patches.

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I am adding here a series of mono-prints which I produced in the print workshop at Oxford Brookes University. I quite enjoyed the freedom of the mono-print technique, which is like a kind of shorthand process exploiting the incalculable surprises which inevitably come with this technique.

 

And finally, here are some small new etchings - no great message either, just playing around with the materials and techniques and enjoying myself ...