Artist Focus: Robin Lasser

I had the opportunity to interview Robin Lasser for a course that I am authoring for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. We discussed issues of eating disorders, land consumption, earthwork, body consumption, text in the landscape and several other topics relevant to the notions of text and image.

Walter de Maria - More than an Earthworks Artist

Walter De Maria was born on October 1, 1935 in Albany California. He studied history and art history at University California, Berkeley. In 1960 he moved to New York. In 1969 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. At an early age Maria was very involved with music, playing for orchestras and jazz bands. In 1963 he co-founded a gallery in Manhattan, New York, having a show of his sculptural work there the same year.

Prior to doing any real research on Walter De Maria, I had always viewed him as an Earthwork artist, one connected with the land and time. I have since come to a different understanding about his notion toward life and the work he produces. I have come to understand that he is not much of an Earthwork artist in the traditional sense at all. By traditional sense I mean one who wants to point viewers towards a connection with the land and an ultimate awareness and protection of our natural resources. Such an awareness as the one referred to in the work by Helen and Newton Harrison. These two artists “promote an ecological awareness through mural sized canvases, photographs, models and other visual material isolating environmental problems and the proposed solutions.” (Auping, Art in the Land, 99). In contrast I propose to present De Maria’s work as not neatly fitting into any single category such as Earthwork, Conceptual or Minimalism. But Rather as an artist “whose integrative approach shows a possible way forward for art production in subsequent years, aimed at a new, integrated experience of self and the world.” (DiamlerChrysler, 2004)

Walter De Maria has been lumped together with the movement titled “Earthwork” since its inception in the early 1960’s. This movement was building in intensity throughout the decade, reaching its zenith in 1969. (Hall, Art in the Land, 8) At this time many of the would-be Earthwork Artists, coming from their various disciplines—painting, sculpture, photography, crossed a common ground. (Hall, Art in the Land, 10) During this period De Maria was assembling his plywood boxes and geometric shapes as well as referencing his music background with the construction of the “Statue” of John Cage. “His work took something of a turn in 1966, however, when he showed Elle, in which a steel ball wobbled down an L-shaped groove.” (Hall, Art in the Land, 17) His work with metal continued into 1968. That year he presented Spike Beds-a grid of steel spikes, foreshadowing his most famous piece, The Lightning Field in New Mexico, 1977. It is at this point I see a divergence with De Maria’s work from that of his contemporaries. Much of their work—Christo, Goldsworthy, Smithson, and Helen and Newton Harrison, focused on the environment, drawing attention to our limited number of natural resources. Much of the work produced by these artists viewed “The land [as] not the setting for the work but a part of the work.” (Artforum New York, 1970) Not to say that De Maria would argue with this statement but it seems his work deals more with the complex issues that come from a zone not accessible to us—the sublime.

In De Maria’s The Broken Kilometer, a work consisting of 500 highly polished brass rods, we begin to see what I mean by this reference to the sublime. In this piece each brass rod is 2 meters in length and 5 centimeters in diameter. If each one of these rods where placed end to end they would equal a distance of one kilometer. The work is installed with the 500 rods distributed throughout the space in 5 parallel rows of 100. Each row is spaced equally apart side to side. From one end of the space to the other the rods are spaced apart increasingly by 5mm. Nearest the spectator the first rods start out 80 mm apart, the last set of rods are spaced 580 mm apart. This same highly acute awareness to detail is represented in Equal Area Series where in this installation, De Maria presents 25 pairs of Circles and Squares. This time the solid stainless-steel plates–a pair consisting of a circle and a squares, increase incrementally by one inch in a progression away from the spectator. In Both installations De Maria is presenting his work in an increasing scale against “diminishing Perspective.” (Govan, 2004) This scale relationship and sense of perspective hearkens back to the ancient Greeks. Seen specifically in their architecture where no two vertical or horizontal lines run perfectly parallel. The columns found in the construction of the Parthenon, for example, are offset the vertical axis slightly so that their axis will cross in space and not run separated into infinity. The Egyptians had similar notions in their construction of the Pyramids and Sarcophagi. In these constructions it is thought that the alignment of the Pyramids has everything to do with the celestial arrangement directly above each structure. Furthermore, the Pharaoh within this great chamber is thereby directly connected with the afterlife and this notion of the sublime and inaccessible construct outside of our natural awareness. Also, “as defined in large part by eighteenth-century artists and writers concerned with reconciling our human-dimensioned existence with overwhelming qualities in the natural world and the greater universe, the sublime is a function less of scale, grandeur, or even beauty, all of which might be measured or comprehended, than of the transcendent implications of the incomprehensible.” (DiamlerChrysler, 2004)

De Maria’s The Lightning Field, probably points most clearly to this zone inaccessible by the human conscious. “His precise design and measure serve, among other things, to channel the sublime cosmic scale and explosive power of the natural environment into the artwork. (DaimlerChrysler, 2004) To give testament to the exactitude of De Maria’s ethic, a description of this grand installation is necessary.

The work is located in west central New Mexico, 2.195 m above sea level. 18.5 km east of the Continental Divide. Four-hundred custom-made, highly polished stainless-steel poles with solid, pointed tips are arranged in a rectangular grid array. They are spaced 67m apart; there are sixteen poles to the width (1km) running north-south, twenty-five poles to the length (1mi) running east-west. Only after a lightning strike has advanced to an area of about 61m above The Lightning Field can it sense the poles. “The experience of the work directly in nature, the effects of the changing light, the shifting space, heat and the sense of waiting for a specific event (the lightning) heightens the viewer’s sense of scale and time.” (Kastner and Wallis, Land and Environmental Art, p.109) Furthermore The viewing of The Lightning Field is a complicated process. Those seeking to visit the field must propose, in writing, to an office in Quemado, owned and operated by the Dia Center for the Arts. Permission granted, one then checks in with the office surrendering their car and all photo equipment into the hands of those running the office. Finally, $85 paid, it is only a short driven out to the site where the visitor occupies a homesteader’s cabin for a minimum of twenty four hours. The way in which The Lightning Field is viewed is dictated by Maria and Dia Center for the Arts, this alone creates an allure of its own. De Maria’s complex involvement with the sublime is further emphasized by the subtle details inaccessible to the uneducated and average viewer. For example, each measure relevant to the placement of the footings for the steel rods where triple checked for accuracy. “Each pole was cut, within an accuracy of 0.0002 of a centimeters to its own individual length.” (Artforum, April 1970) All poles are parallel and spaced apart to an accuracy of .25 of an inch. If each pole where laid end to end the distance would equal 25 km. The accuracy of the tips to one another form a plane level enough to support an imaginary pane of glass. Because De Maria’s central notion of the work is isolation, it is critical that the work be viewed from the ground, experiencing the sky-ground relationship. Furthermore it is essential that the work be viewed with only a few people. In fact De Maria and Dia have put in place a system forcing the field to be viewed by no more than six people at any one time. This measure and high degree of awareness to detail are central to much of De Maria’s work and reach a pinnacle in The Lightning Field. These notions enforce the idea of sublime and an attempt to connect human experience with the “infinitely expanding celestial universe.” The philosopher Immanuel Kant “described the ‘supersen-sible’ quality of things beyond the grasp of the senses and the imagination as a kind of infinity, which he called ‘the mathematically sublime.’” (DaimlerChrysler, 2004)

It is evident that De Maria shares many qualities with his minimalist, earthwork, and conceptual contemporaries. It is also evident that much of his work transcends any medium or category and provides an experience accessible to both the average and informed spectator alike. His work has stood the test of time as well as his title as artist, due in part because of his complex and overwhelming exactitude with a purpose of subtle disclosure. Finally, my notions (as an artist who uses photography as a tool) towards De Maria’s work has changed in that previously, though I have only experienced his work through catalogs and printed images, I saw his work for the photographs I had experienced. Those photographs have informed my work for years. I now understand De Maria’s work to reach beyond the image or installation and into an experience and a connection with a far greater force than conceivable.

~ John Trefethen

What is Landscape

landscape |ˈlan(d)ˌskāp|
noun

1 all the visible features of an area of countryside or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal : the giant cacti that dominate this landscape | a bleak urban landscape.
a picture representing an area of countryside : [as adj. ] a landscape painter.

What is landscape? This may seem like a question with an obvious answer. However, when polled, random Facebook members came up with the following responses to these questions:

1. Would you define "landscape" as open space? 99% YES


2. Would you define "landscape" as wilderness? 98% YES


3. Would you define "landscape" as any piece of land outdoors? 85% YES


4. When you think of artists who work in the "landscape" who comes to mind?
   
   


5. When you think of "Landscape Photography" what/who comes to mind?
   
   


6. Briefly describe your notion of "landscape."
   
   
   
   1. "Landscape is the natural presentation of the earth/land around you." ~ Kimberly Phipps
   
   
   
   2. "Something that is evocative of landscape, I have photographed rotting food, that I called landscapes, also I have photographed my poison oak so that it resembled a landscape. I have seen images of anatomy and physiology that when it is photographed in such a way it no longer resembles that which it is...and can become a landscape. I think my definition of music is also similar in that respect. I am envisioning vast fields of astroturf, and gigantic foam protuberances. I think that the definition also needs to include the artificial. Consider the man made mountains, beaches, and other simulated natural objects." ~ Kevin Powers
   
   
   
   3. "An expanse of land that can be seen from a single viewpoint." ~ Jimi Merrell
   
   
   
   4. "Landscape is the visual beauty of the natural day-by-day allowance provided by God resulting in His perfect creation. With that said, by this imperfect being on this imperfect planet, there is no landscape left -- man has altered the landscape, above and below, beyond our ability to repair it. The same is true of ourselves, at least until we allow the perfect Gardener to renew our landscape." ~ Dave Douglas
   
   
   
   5. "Landscape is that stuff around my house that continuously grows. I like landscape just as long as I can look at it... but do not have to attend to it." ~ Gregory Phipps
   
   
   
   6. "Landscape is the image that stays in your mind after being somewhere and then remembering the broad views. When I think of the landscape of here - I think of rolling brown hills in summer and rolling green hills in winter. The draw of Yosemite and Glacier Parks are the incredible landscapes. Tahoe: I think of the view from the Flume trail. The biggest sweeping view that takes in the unique beauty of a place." ~ Tania Smith
   
   
   
   7. "In my opinion the most effective landscapes convey a journey through the scene, that's why it could just as readily be a cityscape or a tight macro shot of a few rice grains spread across a floor. I remember being amazed at some of Helmut Newton's work on nude landscapes where he used beautiful lighting effects to create landscapes where the "land" was parts of the human body" ~ John Houston
   
   

As displayed in the aforementioned quotations, there are many interpretations of the term "landscape." However abstract the term becomes, they all seem to reference the vast open space of our land. During the process of assembling my thoughts on "landscape" and what the terms conveys I came across several artists whose work deals within this genre.

Among the most notable visual representations of "landscape" are the images of Ansel Adams. He became famous through his craft and the images he created of our natural world. The work of Adams represents the denotation of "landscape."
  
We are all familiar with the landscape work of Ansel Adams to a certain degree, his rich blacks and perfectly balanced tones. His work shows the vast open splendor of our natural world. However, there are other notable photographers whose work falls within the genre of "landscape" while blurring its boundary lines forcing viewers to reconsider space and our environment.



Similar to the work of Adams is the work of Art Wolf and Colin Prior. Their work exemplifies the vastness of our untouched world in an elegant display, only their images are filled with color. Their work is also a good example of the denotation of "landscape."



In the work of Edward Weston we see a transition from the more denoted pictures of the land to the abstraction of the human figure in such a way as to resemble the landscape. We also see the images that inspired this perspective of the human form.


 
Edward Burtynsky takes a traditional approach to documenting the landscape, only his images reveal the hand of mankind and his effects on our world. His work is visually stunning and yet grotesque. Viewers are drawn into the work through the beauty of the print and sheer size (30" x 40") while repulsed by the grandness of man's impact on our planet. Burtynsky's work captures mounds of tires as if they were the rolling foothills of the Sierras. He captures streams of nickel tailings as if they were natural lava flows. And he reveals the deconstruction of our open space as man exploits Earth's bounty.





Moving in a direction toward the abstraction of landscape we see the work of Noah Wilson. In his Aberrations Series we see what appears to be mythical landscapes. In these images the viewer is left standing with a certain level of curiosity about what has happened in this "land." In his series titled, Partial Landscapes we see latent images that appear shrouded in a fog, incomplete and hyper real. The images seem too bright to view causing his viewers to squint in an attempt to discover missing information.



In his statement above, Kevin Powers referenced images that he has created where the human body was photographed in such a way as to "no longer resemble that which it is." By isolating the surface of the skin with an extreme close-up photograph, this image titled, "Self Portrait, Poison Oak Blister" resembles active lava flows or the surface of another planet.



In subsequent posts I will continue this dialog regarding the notions of "landscape." In the meantime, what is your interpretation of "landscape?"