Earth Works 1983

Description

Tall, narrow sets of parallel walls face each other. From the mouth of one opening pours a static flow of coal. Lush Kentucky bluegrass flows out of the other. Through doors into a second room, chunks of slag are scattered on the floor. Together, the elements in the two spaces form a circular pattern.

Outdoors, in front of a deliberately preserved patch of weeds, sits a sod-covered mound in which the artist has buried a rusted video transformer and other evidence of industrial waste. Beyond, he has formed a wide earth couch upholstered with close-cut grass.

Artist Statement

Urban public space, like the cities and industries which created it, is decaying. Along rivers, in vacant factory areas and inner city neighborhoods, land has been ravaged and left naked by our industrial society. The earthwork replenishes urban landscapes; earth, rock, grass and water, the basic elements are sculpted into humanistic forms. The sculpted land now becomes a place to gather, linger and take long leisurely walks that leave you rested, together with nature. Reworking the earth into new organic forms is an alternative to traditional forms of public art. “Nature is the art, in a constant state of change.”