links to other web site and online resources »

so what is environmental sculpture? »

Need inspiration for your environmental sculpture?

Artists often observe themselves and the people around them to find inspiration for their artwork.

The best artwork often document the ethos of a time and place, and speaks to people from other times and places.

Many contemporary artists are focusing their artwork on their (and their own cultures’) relationship to nature. They observe these interactions in a myriad of ways. Here are a few documents, links and ideas to get you thinking about your own observations about the local environment. We want you to show us what you see as an important message to communicate about the Cooks River.

Please meander through these links, documents and ideas. They are only a starting point for your own investigation about the Cooks River. There are so many levels to look at and consider.

Links to other Web sites and online resources
	http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/cadigalwangal/ This site has all sorts of information about the Cooks River, the Cadigal and Wangal peoples.
	http://www.canterbury.nsw.gov.au/www/html/ 170-cooknet---the-cooks-river-portal.asp Here you can find a lot of interesting facts about  The Cooks River including its history, geology, and information about its flora and fauna. Schools can find the Ozgreen School’s Kit here as well as a detailed "Timeline since European Settlement". For the scientifically minded, there is a comprehensive list of scientific literature, and a report on the “Patterns of Debris Movement on the Cooks River” under “Reports and Resources.”
	http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/ environment/cooksriver/riverscience.htm The RiverScience Ecological Monitoring Program aims to increase the scientific knowledge available to the community about the Cooks River. It is an initiative of the Cooks River Foreshore Working Group and a joint project between Marrickville, Kogarah, Rockdale and Canterbury Councils. “ Health” of the river is assessed utilizing studies conducted on specific indicator species.
	http://www.wollicreek.org.au/ Community group who have actively fought to preserve this large area a bushland over many years. The site offers lots of interesting information including a virtual tour of the Wolli Creek corridor, as well as beautiful images of the insects and reptiles of the area.
	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_River/ Cooks River entry in the free online encyclopaedia
	http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/information_about_plants/ botanical_info/Botany_of_Botany_Bay/places/cooks_river Botanic Gardens Trust website which has a map showcasing the original vegetation of the Cooks River area
	http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/water/oururbancatchments.htm Great link that explains that everyone who lives in the whole of the Cooks River Catchment has a role to play is caretaking its health. Also suggests how to get involved in sustainable water initiatives and ways to reduce your lifestyle’s impact on the area.
	Links to sites that showcase Environmental Art + Artists
	http://www.greenmuseum.org Online Environmental Art Museum
	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_art/ Wikipedia entry for Environmental Art
	http://www.hellefors.se/kommun/cloudberry/index.htm A group of Nordic practitioners who aim to develop innovative practices of art-based interpretation. Their aim is to foster long-term understanding and care of neglected and overlooked European sites and landscapes.
	http://greenmuseum.org/c/alch_gard/index.html The Alchemical Garden - A brief review of Environmental Art + Artists
	http://www.environmentalart.net/natur/index.htm Examples of Environmental Art in Finland
	Google Le vent des forets (select “translate this page” if you don’t speak French) to see how they do environmental art in France.
	http://www.artlink.com.au/issue.cfm?id=2540#articles Artlink issue - Ecology:Everyone’s Business. Includes selected articles online. One by CSIRO science writer Simon Torok suggests that it is through links between science and art  that abstract concepts such as climate change can be made visible and inspire emotional responses.
	http://www.ozco.gov.au/arts_resources/publications/art_and_wellbeing/ Go to the “Ecologically Sustainable Development” chapter  of this online book to discover three interesting community art projects: Sunrise 21, CERES, and the Murray River Story
	http://www.reversegarbage.org.au/ Check out where we are getting the materials for Riverworks. Also take a look at  the m.a.d. – make a difference link to see what local artists and designers create out of recyclable materials.
	http://www.countryartswa.asn.au/publication/ATpdfs/AT_Dec05_web.pdf Edition of Art Torque (December 2005 ) entitled “Inspired by Country.”
	Environmental Festivals in Australia
	Brisbane’s Riverfestival http://www.riverfestival.com.au/
	Melbourne’s Kingfisher Festival http://www.ceres.org.au/index1024x768.htm (has lovely story about one community’s successful regeneration of a depleted Site. Also has  some awesome artistic creations – look at the different years in photographs).
	Cooks River Festival  http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/council/news/pressreleases2007.htm
	Individual Artists
	Patrick Doughherty http://www.stickwork.net/news.php
	Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison http://greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-81.html http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/artistsrffa/arthar01.html I was lucky enough to spend some time working with The Harrisons during my studies in the UK. Their sense of dedication to the environment in their work impressed me immensely, as did their capacity to use art as a catalyst to bring people from different disciplines together to envision new directions for the natural environment.
	Janet Lawrence http://www.galeriedusseldorf.com.au/GDArtists/LaurenceJanet/JLawrence.html
	Melissa Hirsch http://www.capegallery.com.au/preciousocean/
	Fauna
	Birds http://www.flickr.com/photos/10131109@N04/sets/72157600851106173/
	Insects http://www.flickr.com/photos/14316262@N00/sets/72157594447452263/
	Spiders http://www.flickr.com/photos/14316262@N00/sets/72157594447416904/
	Assorted fauna  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7149728@N05/sets/72157594570562166/

If you any further questions after reading the information on this website, please email bronwynt@canterbury.nsw.gov.au or phone 9789-9300

So what is environmental sculpture?

Environmental sculpture is concerned with the meeting point between art + nature. It often discusses the state of the environment,  and explores inventive ways to communicate and develop answers to the pressing concerns we now face. It can often invite collaboration between seemingly disparate fields, like art and science, to re-interpret the natural world and our place in it.

 At other times environmental artists may work to point out aspects of the natural environment in new and refreshing ways, and to happen upon one of these works can be a totally enlivening experience.

Artist’s who want to say something about the environment we live in, and our relationship to it, work in many different ways.

Most people tend to think that to make an environmental artwork you must use natural materials. This is only one facet of environmental art. Other artists like to use recycled materials or industrial discards. Other artists still, utilise new man-made materials in order to comment on the intersection between the natural and cultural environments. Environmental art may be gallery-based or situated in the natural environment. It may be site-specific, which means that the artwork and the site are of equal importance in the work. It may be an ephemeral or permanent installation.

This art genre tends to challenge us to examine our culture’s relationship to nature in a new way. Maybe through looking at these works, we may be liberated, if only for a moment, from the familiarity and acceptance of the culture we live in. It is in these moments we may locate, in ourselves, the desire for change. In this instance we are talking about the kind of change that may lead us towards living a more sustainable lifestyle.

In a lot of ways, Environmental Art is as vast and expansive as the field of nature that inspires it, and like nature, it is a growing living genre.

 On March 29 + 30, we will be using recycled materials from Reverse Garbage, which has, for over twenty years, provided materials for re-use in creative projects. Normally all this waste would go into landfill.

Current Environmental Art practice has moved further away from some of it’s earlier proponents work, such as Smithson’s Spiral Jetty

and Christo’s Wrapped Coast. While the idea and appearance of these works are seductive and quite beautiful, the reality can sometimes be quite different. Smithson’s Spiral Jetty took two dump trucks, a tractor and a large front loader 292 hours between them to create the spiral. Some critiques of this work see it as demonstrative of the kind of approach that allowed the degradation of our natural environment in the first instance to occur. On the other hand, Smithson was apparently fascinated with entropy, and since the work is now submerged under water, it certainly shows us an iconic representation of this process in his art. The less attractive side of Christo’s Wrapped Coast,  for example, occurred when a seal and several penguins had to be cut out of the material used to create his phenomenal piece in 1969.

1/ Integration - Artworks in this category “manipulate the landscape as a material in its own right.”
(See Andy Goldsworthy - http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/search/?search=99&when=1986)

2/ Interruption - These artworks “co-join the environment and human activity by employing non-indigenous, man-made materials” in their installations
(See Ken Yonetani, Sweet Barrier Reef, 2005 - http://www.artspace.org.au/gallery/gallery_exhibition.php?e=21)

3/ Involvement - Works under this title “focus on the artist as an individual acting in a one-to-one relationship with the land.” Much of this theme incorporates performance art.
(See Jill Orr’s Bleeding Trees, 1979 - http://www.jillorr.com.au/bltrees.html)

4/ Implementation - Artists may “combine incisive critique with practical and redemptive strategies” for the natural environment with plans to revitalise and challenge our concept of nature as an “infinitely exploitable resource.”
(See Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison’s work http://www.feldmangallery.com/pages/artistsrffa/arthar01.html )

5/ Imagining - These artists  tend to see the landscape as a concept created by culture. “Forms of measurement such as maps and place names are deconstructed and played with” and the tendency for humans to use language and classification systems to manage nature, is challenged and often subverted in these works.
(See Mark Dion http://www.joshuakauffman.org/2007/06/17/mark-dions-systema-metropolis/ )