Eco-phenomenology and the Maintenance of Eco Art: Agnes Denes’s A Forest for Australia (2021) Clarissa Chevalier. A nice introduction to discussions, and summary of approaches to land-art conservation. Chevalier refers to William Cronon who argues that approaches to the natural world which portray it “as Edenic or sublime uphold problematic colonialist ideology” (in stark contrast to what Enis Yucekoralp writes concerning the sublime). The article offers a through investigation to the condition of the artwork (building on the work Sarah Hicks and Gilbert Jock started) and calls for a change for how we appreciate land- and environmental artworks.
I argue that there is value in allowing A Forest for Australia to be gradually shaped by its environment without human intervention, as the trees extend past the planned geometry of the original planting. As Jock and Hicks note, A Forest for Australia offers a rare glimpse into the increasingly extreme weather of Australia, in contrast to the manicured suburbs and lush city parks of Melbourne. […] I believe Denes’s “A Forest for Australia” highlights the contradictions of artificially sustained urban green spaces in the face of extreme weather conditions induced by climate change.
I’m flattered by the quote from my contribution to the “Forest Dreams” seminar last year: “As performance artist, Eero Yli-Vakkuri poetically states […] approaching the uneven growth of Denes’s forests allows us a mental exercise in cultivating our appreciation of decay, of ‘failure’, of our unmet expectations of nature.'”
Turns our marble can be made into co² using sulfuric acid: From Marble Dust to Soda Water (2021) Henry Levin. I could use a part of the Finlandia hall to drink the other.