Land Art by Gokhan Demir

“Land art, Earthworks, or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape; rather the landscape is the very means of their creation. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away from civilization, left to change and erode under natural conditions. Many of the first works, created in the deserts of Nevada, New Mexico, Utah or Arizona were ephemeral in nature and now only exist as video recordings or photographic documents.

Land art is to be understood as a protest against the artificiality, plastic aesthetics and ruthless commercialisation of art at the end of the 1960s in America. Exponents of land art rejected the museum as the setting of artistic activity and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of the commercial art market. Land artists in America relied mostly on wealthy patrons and private foundations to fund their often costly projects. With the sudden economic down turn of the mid 1970s funds from these sources largely dried up.”
“Land Art” 1 December 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_art>
Soren Harward. Spiral Jetty from atop Rozel Point
December 2008.