Sculpting the Earth
artistic interventions with the landscape
My Name is Strijdom van der Merwe, an artist from South Africa.
I see myself as a land artist. With that I mean working mostly in the landscape. I will use the materials that I found in the landscape but I will also bring outside materials into the landscape with the primary objective to make a statement about nature and our relationship with the land and environment.
For me the most exiting and creative work will always be the ones that happen when walking the landscape with no preconceive ideas, and those ones that happen because of the interaction with nature and the process that nature play in the creating process.
With these first two works I have walked this semidesert landscape and realize that there is a thin layer of black sand on the surface of the lighter under ground. I have simply improvising by dragged by my one foot to create this swirling pattern and criss cross lines.
These following are also a good example of how nature will determine what I will do. It will always be that Ican’t sit in my studio and decide what to do but only nature will determine the outcome. These where done in Malta during a residency where we had to work towards a exhibition with the theme ‘The Sea as Landscape’ In this first one you can see the large structures they created to prevent the sea from causing more damage to the coast line. I have taken my water bottle and draw a line with water in these structures. In the following two I have taken sandstone rocks and place it in or on top of the water as a gesture of an island. The same as if Malta is a sandstone sculpture island in the sea.
The following three images are examples of work done on a mountain in ÅndalsnesNorway. As part of the Mountain Festival it was expected from me to climb the mountain everyday and create work on the mountain. Lifting stones that are already in the water and make them stand upright. Finding a rock with a natural line in it and lining it up with the road that run in the valley. Taking mud from a nearby pond and cover this stone in a layer of brown mud to create colour contrast with the surrounding area.
During autumn the trees are loosing theirleaves, as you all know. When walking this park I saw these beautiful display of colour and adding my input by ‘cutting’ away a section of the leaves and move it a few meter forward.
Working in the landscape you became aware of changes that is happening within nature and as a sensitive person a believe it is also our duty to also make art works that address social and environmental problems such as global warming and the changing climate.
With these two works i took a drainage cover and place it the landscape to make a statement about desertification and global warming in the other one about melting of the ice cups.
We have to ask ourselves: For how much longer do we think we can control nature. How much do we take from nature and for how long will we keep on using more than we really need. We have to learn to become Ecological Intelligent again. We have to realize that we are part of the cycles of nature.
I do many workshops with people and always trying to make them aware of there connection with history and with nature. With this work I have taken samples of rock art engravings found in South Africa and ask all the participants to re create them as large sand castles on the beach. Recreatingrock art symbols that will disappear as soon as the high tide will wash it away. Connecting people again with nature and the cycles of nature and life.
For the first time in South Africa De Beers Diamond Mining Company have introduced large-scale earth works in a method to rehabilitate the landscape. I was commissioned to make use of the earth moving equipment to reshape one of the mine dumps into anearthwork. When walking the landscape in preparation for the work I realize there is no live, nothing grows nothing move only the movement of shadows. There for a decided to create a work a called: am/pm Shadow Lines. They have moved 6 thousand tons of earth to form these lines. When the sun moves from east to west the patterns and shadows move slowly during the day to create new and ever changing shadows. Its not about theamount of earth that have been move its about the gentle soft quite movement of shadows.
This work was a commission from the Zeits Foundation in Kenya to create a work that can be seen from the air, for the game farm Segera owned by Jochen Zeits owner of the sports brand. PUMA. My creative process was thinking about Kenya and the migration of animals but also the migration of humans from Africa to other parts of the world.
I also use ‘sliding or moving stones’ as an inspiration to create the work ‘Migration’ where large boulders as sculptures move across the landscape and leaving draglines behind. In these stones I engraved with stainless steel the words Nomad. Exodus. Passage, Voyage etc. to emphasis that nature are constantly moving and migrating.
This work was a wonderful collaboration between a ceramist and myself. He had made 11 000 of these cups. Before firing them he asked people to press their hand shape into the soft clay, sign it and write there age on the bottom. For the final installation I display them as towns or city’s’ of people connected to each other with lines / roads
On the final day the people could come and search for there cups and take it home. Although the process was wonderful, what fascinated me more at the end were the marks left behind when all was gone. How nature has played its part and even more beautiful how these markings will gradually disappear until no trace is left.
How do I develop my work from in the landscape into the studio as documentation for exhibition purpose:
This is a work done for the Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. I had to use the 100meterlong by 4-meter wide area between the museum and Independence Avenue. The theme was: Land as metaphor in the Arts of Africa. My work was title: Land Reform. With this work I pushed back the top layer of grass to reveal the real landscape that lie’s underneath the superficial grass surface. Just as other countries and governments reform the political landscape but the real people and stories will always remain.
These are photo documentation of the actual work printed on paper. Then I have draw over the images with pencil and pastel to give it a more artistic and original collectors identity.
In this exhibition I did two residencies’ that was linked to each other. The one was in Johannesburg, South Africa and the other on Sylt a Island, part of Germany. The blue is representation of the sea. Only the blue powder of paint spattered on the floor and then the muddy brown dust of a gold mine painted on the wall. In the background you can see photo documentation of the works done on the island and a wall piece of grass from Johannesburg that changed colour as the exhibition concluded.
About Nature art in South Africa:
In 2011 myself and two friends started ‘Site Specific Land Art’ to promote and facilitate site specific art in the landscape in South Africa, as well as supporting and coordinating art and environment creators and patrons. We are non-profit associations that promote nature art. For us it’s a celebration of the land that sustains us and reminds us of our temporary nature and our shared existence.
On a monthly basis we organize weekend meetings in several parts of the country where artist can get together and for a day session make works and document them.
We have also organized in 2011 and 2013 two Site Specific land art biennale’s where we have invited international artist. But this year we decided to rather focus on smaller and more regular events through out the year. This way we reach a wider audience and let the energy flow more regular than only every two years.
