Final Project: Tree Rings

I created three leaf rings around a tree. The innermost ring is the skinniest and the outermost ring is the thickest. I wanted to reflect on the core of the tree, the rings that can be seen in the trunk if you chop a tree down. The internal has become the external. 





Ritual in Stapled Wood Poles

I have seen a few wood poles that are covered in staples. Someone would staple a flyer on the pole and after some time the flyer would be gone while the staple remained. I think it is amazing how many staples can accumulate over time just by tons of different people doing the same action.The concept of ritual plays a huge part in this earth art work. The repeating action (stapling) is why these wood poles reach its appearance today. These wood poles covered in staples can be found all over the U.S. and other parts of the world too.

According to Lippard, only forms become ritual only when "filled by a communal impulse that connects the past (the last time we performed this act) and the present (the ritual we are performing now) and the future (will we ever perform it again?). What Lippard states is the epitome of the creation of the heavily stapled wood pole. The "communal impulse" is definately there as the creation of the pole is shared by the community surrounding it. The action of stapling does connect the past, the present, and the future for people have been stapling flyers in the past, stapling flyers right now, and probably stapling flyers in the future. However, the wood pole I have pictured here has probably reached its limit and the ritual of stapling has ended since there are no flyers on it now (perhaps there are too many staples on the pole).

Final Project Ideas

A Line Made By Walking

Richard Long

source: http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/3655/3783

Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson

source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spiral-jetty-from-rozel-point.png

I thought it would be a great effect if I found a grassy area and trimmed the grass to create a spiral. My inspiration was a mix between Richard Long's A Line Made By Walking and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. My intention is to make the spiral as big as possible. If I decide to work with this idea I will probably create the spiral in Monroe Park.

I passed by a chopped bush over the weekend and came up with another idea to tie vines that I find with the "trunk" of the bush. I will then tie more vines to the vines that are tied to the bush and intertwine them around an iron fence nearby. I'm hoping I will be able to cover as much as the length of the fence as possible with vines.

Evidence of Time

In class we talked about the passage of time is evident in many earth art works. Richard Long's walks show that a time has passed before concrete evidence appeared in the ground (grass, earth, etc.). A human force is what took part in the showing of time, but the images I have captured above are different. The rusted iron fence and decayed stone wall became that way because of simply nature's force. A passage of time is still evident in the fence and wall. A long time must have passed before the fence and wall have had somewhat heavy rusting/decaying.

On a side note, one interesting aspect I found about the fence and wall was the fact that an underlying color started to show through from the rusting/decaying. This concept of earth's underlying color was incorporated in a lot of earth art, such as the Cerne Giant.

Crop Circles

Crop Circle in Switzerland

Source: http://www.artonot.com/2009/06/crop-circles-spooky-but-artsy-too/

Crop Circle with Fractal Pattern

Source: http://www.artonot.com/2009/06/crop-circles-spooky-but-artsy-too/

I remembered how we talked in class about how the Cerne Giant in England ressembled a crop circle and I would like to address crop circles. A crop circle is a large scale pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, or rye. There are many earth art works that use a similar method in its creation, but without a pattern. We covered earth art that was created by flattening grass or stepping through snow, really using the same general idea to create crop circles: indentations in the outermost "layer" of the earth. Although crop circles can be made with simple tools, they can be very complex.  Like many earth art works, in order to see a crop circle in its entirety, one must see it from far above the land.

I found this wooden stake on West Grace St. I recognized the Star of David and the Cross painted in white on it. I believe that between the two religious symbols is the letters "RAS." I did not know what this meant so I did some research. Here are my findingss:

The Rastafarian movement is a monotheistic, new religious movement that arose in Christian culture in Jamaica in the 30s. Its followers worshipped Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as the Second Advent. Some followers see the Rastafarian movement more as a way of life than a religion. Rastafarian beliefs are based in Judaism and Christianity, which explains the Star of David, a Judaism symbol, and the Christian Cross bounding "RAS" on the wooden stake.

Perhaps the one who painted on this wooden stake is creating a tribute to his/her religious beliefs. In our class' text, Overlay, Lucy Lippard talks about how she believes art is for some people a substitute for religion. I am not saying that the person who painted religious symbols on the stake is forsaking religion for art, but I think more likely, he/she is using art as an outlet for religious expression. Indeed, according to Lippard, "some artists fortify their forms or emotional instincts with anthropological information". She continues to say that others work from inside, "arriving at primal images from their own needs, overlaying personal on historical and perhaps even biological memory." I believe this wooden stake is a very personal piece that was created with emotional beginnings. There is definitely a historical background to this piece.

Richmond's Petroglyphs

Here are some modern day petroglyphs. I found plenty of engravings in sidewalks around Richmond and I bet you found a ton too. The top picture makes me wonder if the engravings were done in one time setting or did people added more engravings over time. If the engravings were done over time I definitely start thinking about the idea of repetition and ritual that we talked about in class. In this case, there will be a double meaning for the idea of repetition. There is the repetitive motion of carving into the sidewalk and the repetition of a person (or people) continuously coming back to carve something new. While ancient petroglyphs utilized symbols and images more, the modern sidewalk petroglyphs I found turned to words, with the exception of my middle picture.

For some reason I have the sudden urge to add a triple spiral engraving to the sidewalk block...I wonder why...

The Meaning of the Spiral

Front Kerbstone at New Grange, Country Meath, Ireland. c.3400 B.C.

This kerbstone is at the New Grange mound, passage grave, and temple. It is intricately carved with spirals, lozenges, and concentric circles. This kerbstone is an example of petroglyphs. It seems that the spiral is a constant repeating form in many earth art works. There is a lot of controversy over the true meaning of spirals in Celtic art. The direction of the spiral and the number of rotations is speculated to affect the meaning behind a particular spiral. The triple spiral, which can be seen on the left of the kerbstone I have pictured, symbolizes the three phases of the moon. The double spiral signifies balance. It is also believed to show the equinox, in which day and night are equal in length (balance in time). In terms of the direction of the spiral, a clockwise spiral represented the Sun. This representation of the Sun is quite interesting because the Celtic people tended to favor the Moon in their symbolism. A loosely wound spiral would symbolize the lengthening day while a tightly wound spiral symbolized the shortened days (i.e. the long winter nights).

For more information on Celtic symbols in art here is a link to my reference article:
“Celtic Symbols: Finding Meaning in Celtic Art”
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/celtic-symbols-finding-meaning-in-celtic-art-338040.html