land art

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Art

Ephemeral Compositions Use Sand and Stone to Create Hypnotic Works on Land

The wildly prolific Wales-based artist Jon Foreman has spent much of 2021 on a new batch of mesmerizing land pieces. Expanding on the swirling, organic shapes he’s known for, many of his recent works take on minimal, geometric formations in diagonal stripes or colorful, concentric circles. Foreman created a 2022 calendar featuring some of the compositions shown here—ordering instructions are on his Instagram—and you can find prints of his ephemeral pieces in his shop.

 

 

 

Art Photography

Nine Massive Waves of Deadwood Surge Across a Forest Floor Near Hamburg

As the fear of a second wave of COVID-19 swept through Germany in the fall of 2020, photographer and artist Jörg Gläscher decided to channel his own worry into a project that felt similarly vast and domineering. “I was working (with the idea of) the pure power of nature, the all-destroying force, which brings one of the richest countries in the world to a completely still stand,” he tells Colossal. “A wave is a periodic oscillation or a unique disturbance the state of a system.”

Between November 2020 and March 2021, Gläscher spent his days in a secluded location near Hamburg, where he gathered deadwood and constructed nine massive crests—the largest of which spans four meters high and nine meters wide—that overwhelm the forest floor in undulating layers of branches and twigs. Each iteration, which he photographed and then promptly destroyed in order to reuse the materials, overwhelms the existing landscape with pools of the formerly thriving matter.

Gläscher’s installations are part of a larger diaristic project he began at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, he published a few magazines to present the works that range from photography to sculpture in one place, which you purchase along with prints in his shop. Find more of his multi-media projects on his site and Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

 

Art

Precisely Arranged Stones Coil and Surge Across the Land in Jon Foreman’s Mesmeric Works

A scroll through Jon Foreman’s Instagram proves just how prolific the Wales-based artist has been this year—he’s collaborated with artist James Brunt (previously) on a few projects, too. From coils arranged in gradients to whirling patterns embedded in the sand, Foreman’s land art sprawls across beaches and grassy patches in an impressive number of locations. Each work is precise in composition, perfectly matching size, hue, and shape into hypnotic works that contrast the man-made construction with their organic backdrops.

Because the outdoor projects are ephemeral in nature, Foreman (previously) offers prints of most pieces in his shop.

 

 

Art

Aerial Views of Switzerland Capture Saype’s Massive Artwork Painted on the Alpine Terrain

Although many of us won’t be flying over Leysin, Switzerland any time soon, French artist Guillaume Legros, who’s better known as Saype, has painted a hopeful new work on a grassy hillside that’s best seen from the air. Across 3,000-square meters, “BEYOND CRISIS” shows a little girl with a hand-drawn farandole circling around her. She peers across the mountainous region toward the horizon.

The expansive piece is Saype’s encouraging response to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 worldwide. “During these times of pandemic, a majority of the world population is confined. Although we are all affected, we live different challenges or struggles and I choose to paint this fresco entitled ‘BEYOND CRISIS’ close to home to share with you an optimistic message and a breath of fresh air,” the self-taught artist wrote on Instagram.

Saype explores themes of humanity through existential philosophies, he said in a statement, by inviting “us to wonder about our deep nature, our spirit, our place on earth and in the society.” The artist began working on grassy landscapes in 2015 as a way to merge his penchant for land art and graffiti, which since has inspired an artistic movement. For his massive projects, Saype uses paint derived from natural materials like coal and chalk.

To purchase a lithograph of the artist’s ephemeral artworks, check out what’s available in his shop.

 

Art

Stones, Leaves, and Shells Whorl in Hypnotic Land Art by Jon Foreman

Jon Foreman arranges his seashell coils and stone gradients knowing that they’ll be washed away by the tide or kicked over by passersby. The artist’s ephemeral land art is hypnotic and entrancing in its precision, arranged in perfectly concentric circles and exacting compositions depressed in the sand. His large-scale pieces transform blank beaches and forest expanses into artworks that evidence both environmental diversity and continuity.

Based in Wales, the artist began creating his nature-based work while in college. Since then, his land art has ranged from minimal stone sculptures to sweeping sand mandalas, and each project has its own entrancing motif. “Repeat processes are always very therapeutic and this is a good example of that, getting lost in the process is an important part of land art,” Foreman recently wrote on Instagram.

If you don’t have the opportunity to see one of the artist’s highly composed pieces in person, pick up a print from his shop. (via Juxtapoz)

Art

Grassy Inclines Embedded in the Ground by Tanya Preminger Throw the Earth Off Balance

Take a seat on one of Tanya Preminger’s grass-covered artworks, and you won’t be able to right the balance. The Isreal-based artist created immovable slants and indentations embedded in the land that seem like they should tip depending upon the amount of weight settled on either side. For each sloping piece, Preminger employed an excavator to dig a hole and pour the soil into a nearby pile. She then used a shovel, rake, and lengthy ruler to sculpt the slanted earth, covering it with sod at the end.

After seeing a footprint left in a bit of sand, Preminger wanted to express the relationship between give and take that’s inherent in nature. “In physics, an action is equal to its reaction,” she tells Colossal. “The project expresses in material form the philosophical law of balance between opposing sides of one essence.”

The artist produced the first oval impression in 1989 in the fields of the kibbutz Givat Brenner. When organizers of the Chemin d’Art asked her to recreate her original work for their 2008 festival in France, she designed “Round Balance,” altering her oval to a circle “to give a more universal meaning.” (via Design You Trust)