greetings to you all

[river]

Hi,

I have just joined and wanted to say hello to everyone. I came across this group as I was doing some research for an essay I'm working on. I must say that I'm very impressed by the group; if a little overwhelmed ... as a mere student, my level of knowledge doesn't seem as great as most of the folk in this group!:)

As my course is mainly focused on sustainable practice I'd love to hear from anyone who is working this way. We concentrate heavily on "re-use, reclaim and recycle", (but I do favour working in clay.)

We have just covered batch production and are looking at one-off and site-specific work. (So we are all fighting over the Andy Goldsworthy books in the library. His work is fantastic!) I'm working with fallen leaves at the moment, as it is Autumn and they are readily available .. re-use. when I've finished I'll post a picture here, it would be great to get the opinions of proffesional, working artists.

[anne (bxl)]

Hi River, welcome on this site!

You like goldsworthy work, it's great! there are many other artists working on vegetal/mineral installations you have to discover. among them : Nils Udo (german) or Bob Verschueren (belgian). There are books on their work also.

I just spend a week in the marocco desert with Bob, I really had a great time working with him on site-specific projects. I post a project I was working on just after a huge storm (in the desert it happens every 10 years....)

[anne (bxl)]

sorry the pic is too heavy and I don't know how to compact it.

[Araich]

Welcome river, I've just become friends with a German artist, Frank Raendchen www.raendchen.de who was telling me about the 4 tons of potatoes he had used in a gallery. He had let then bloom, growing a foot high over the duration of the show.
His main materials are stone, timber and glass.

Anne - email me the photo and I'll reduce for you, if you like.

[Araich]

Originally posted by anne (bxl)
I just spend a week in the marocco desert with Bob, I really had a great time working with him on site-specific projects. I post a project I was working on just after a huge storm (in the desert it happens every 10 years....)

[river]

Thank you for the picture Anne. That must have been a wonderful experience to work on a project that can only be done once a decade! Were you under time restrictions? Is there a written account of this work anywhere ... a book, or website?
I also like the work of Nils-Udo ... it's not just his work, but his attitude towards nature and life that is facinating. He is the subject of the essay I'm working on. I've been having a bit of a debate about how site-specific and one-off work can be one and the same in some circumstances, but I didn't explain myself very well:( Hope I do better in the essay.

[anne (bxl)]

sure, we were under time restriction, in the desert one day is never the same as the next one because of the wind, one hour is never the same as the next one because of the shadows.
there is no written account on this experience but you would be interrested in reading an article on nils udo in sculpture magazine http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag99/sept99/nils/nils.htm
or visit bob site : http://www.bobverschueren.com
I would be happy to read your essay when finished.

[waveshop]

Hi river,... Im new here too. and also a bit overwhelmed. Your not alone. I work in reclaimed material,..... so I had to give a shout. I have already been asked if I had thought about using raw material to do what I am doing by one of the "overwhelming"artists. But what drives my work IS the thing Reclaimed and reusable. The thing I am finding and still trying to perfect,... is to show the slightest hint of the reused material,.... let it catch the viewer as late as possible into an initial observation. would like to see what you are reusing. I posted a pic of two pieces in my thread here. Let me know if you can tell what they were originally. Rob