Re-visiting research from my Fine Art Degree

I have a couple of books from my Fine Art degree that form links to my evolving practice now. I thought it would be interesting to look back on some of this information and see how it links to themes i’m currently exploring. In my degree, I looked at the broad topic of materiality and how materials can convey different meanings, or how they are used can inform a context. Also, I was looking at sculpture, landscape and women in this field; this was the topic I wrote about on my dissertation.

Undermining-The Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics and Art in the Changing West- Lucy Lippard

John Brinckerhoff Jackson- He defined landscape as “a concrete, three-dimensional, shared reality” - a collaboration between people and nature rather than an idealised picture or view of what lies beyond our own centres.

“I began thinking about gravel pits as a metaphor for the underground level of a twenty-first century cultural landscape” - Lucy Lippard

Pg 9 discusses relevance of place and the use of art-

“(Artists) can ask questions without worrying about the answers. I continue to count on the reconstructive potential of an art that raises consciousness on the land, about land use, history and local culture and place” - Lucy Lippard

Materiality- Documents of Contemporary Art- Petra Lange-Berndt

Pg 149- Robert Smithson- A sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects 1968

“Ones mind & earth are in constant state of erosion”

“Slump, debris, slides, avalanches all take place within the cracking limits of the brain”

“The tools of art have too long been confided to the studio”

“The city gives the illusion that earth does not exist”

These texts can be taken as a pinch of salt, but they provide me with some new wave of thought- especially when I feel like i’m stuck for inspiration. They do ground me, as they speak directly with the materiality of earth.