Typically, land art is the use of materials found in the environment to change a place in a way that could be considered artistic. Robert Smithson's well known earthwork in Utah is a typical example. Artists also employ other materials not usually found in the environment , such as bread, in the case of Peter Hutchinson's "Paricutin Volcano Project." Whether some of the techniques used in land art constitute art or environmental vandalism is debatable.
Double Negative
According to noted art critic Thomas Buser, contemporary sculptor Michael Heizer used power shovels and bulldozers to create his work "Double Negative" in 1969 in the Moapa Valley, Nevada. The work consists of a long trench, created by the displacement of about a quarter of a million tons of earth. The excavated material was dumped into a canyon.
Roden Crater
Artist James Turrell bought an extinct volcano from Hopi Indians in Arizona's Painted Desert. He aims to create something akin to an ancient observatory where visitors can explore the interplay of light and space. In the first phase of the project, Turrell had to move 1.3 million cubic yards of earth. Wanting to create an area of exposed geology akin to the Grand Canyon, Turrell shaped the huge Crater Bowl. He also dug the 854 feet long Alpha (East) Tunnel.
Spiral Jetty
Robert Smithson famously created the earthwork "Spiral Jetty" at Rozel Point on Utah's Great Salt Lake. Using mud, salt crystals and rocks from the area, Smithson created a coil, or spiral, 1,500 feet in length and 15 feet wide. The work has a long straight section leading from the edge of the lake. Smithson then created the coil, in a counterclockwise direction. From the air, it is not unlike a decorative, lower case "b."
Foraging
In 1971, land artist Peter Hutchinson traveled through Colorado's Snowmass Wilderness, with an assistant, as part of a work called "Foraging." The project included making the word "Foraging" in rocks. Hutchinson filmed this part. Later, the pair rearranged wild strawberries to say "The End." Hutchinson filmed this too. In the film, his assistant then starts to remove the strawberries. This is meant to represent the destruction of "the end" and how time is renewed.
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