Harvesting Willow

Had a great day today harvesting willow with the Andy and the students from Horticap. We were given permission to harvest the willow from private land at a beautiful spot in Dallowgill, Kirkby Malzaerd.The willow will  be used as part of an arts week I will be doing with year 6 of the Parish Church Primary School in Skipton. The plan is to construct a willow sculpture in the grounds of the school. Keeping in the concept of shelter and safety (the original inspiration for the Horticap sculpture “Refuge”) my initial ideas are to construct three dome shaped structures all slightly smaller than each other that represent the different stages of the children going through the years of primary school. The sculptures will be large enough to climb into and will act as forms of dens for the children!

Special thanks to Andy for organising the job, Jenny for her permission to harvest the willow from her land, her sister Rachael and of course the students for all their hard work, hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did!

Land Art

  

                                

                             Michael Heizer
                                       "Double Negative" 1969 Mormon Mesa, Nevada



"Rift 1" 1968  Nevada Desert



Film stills of Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" 1970



Robert Morris "Observatory" 1970 Netherlands

Land Art originated in the USA in the late 1960’s. The success and subsequent failure of modernism combined with a mixture of events such as the first images of the earth from space from the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, the Vietnam War, the threat of a nuclear war and the danger of a population explosion  sparked an intense and emotional response from artists.  The realization of how precious human existence is led this new art form to directly engage with the physicality of the earth itself. By manipulating the landscape artists were able to validate the acceptance of the environment around us and make a physical mark on the world; validating the presence of humanity. The vastness of some of the Land Art works is compelling and very powerful. The earth and the materials the land provides are mediums I very much engage with.