By: Sophia W.
Photo from: The Chestertown Spy
Environmental artwork at large can manifest in a plethora of meaningful pieces, as earlier mentioned in The Role of Art in Climate Change. Whether it be Nils-Udo’s land art using natural materials like branches, pinecones, and rocks or Edith Meusnier’s artwork using textiles to create beautiful fiber art, environmental artists across the globe use an interdisciplinary approach to create awareness for sustainability issues as well as the present and future relationship between human lifestyles and other living creatures and their ecological systems. The umbrella term “environmental art” encompasses and embraces the different movements including Land art, Sustainable art, and Conceptual art. The actual movement itself emerged in the 1960s when environmental activists’ concerns merged with artists' connection with the land and natural materials. During this time, a new dynamic between humanity and land arose. Artists began using different backdrops for their artwork such as industrial land sites, deserts, and mountains. This shift in dynamic was significant because, before the movement, artists would depict the landscape in their artwork but now, artists would go out into the landscapes and leave their works there.
Photo from: Metal Magazine
French artist Edith Meusnier creates colorful fiber installations in forests, parks, castles, and courtyards using the ancient Bronze age techniques of plaiting (the interlacing of various fabrics). Her passion for fiber art developed at an early age when she found herself interested in the contemporary interpretation of the primitive plaiting she had seen in books. Her art is made into flexible geometric shapes made of fabrics, ribbons, and string of all different shapes and colors. Meusnier says, “I like the lightness and fluidity of fibers. I like to manipulate, transform, distort, and fabricate textiles.” Additionally, it is with her love for forests and their changing aspects, noises, and odors that she made the Aumont-en-Halatte forest in Paris. She plays with the elements of nature and summons the sun, wind, and rain to give life to her structures that are ever-changing between light and shadows. Edith’s Sortilege was created in 2010 for the Artec Festival in France where 42 of her vibrant fiber art pieces were draped over the L’Huisne River. Her art is seasonal, lasting for six months or longer. When it is time to take down the piece, she recycles the fabrics.
Photo from: Edith Meusnier
Photo from: Nils Udo
The famous German artist Nils Udo studied graphic arts in Nuremberg, Germany, however, in 1972 he gave up painting believing it was an artificial way to handle nature, and thus he began working with the source herself by “sketching with flowers, painting with clouds and writing with water” in an art style known as land art. Several artists like Udo have broken away from the museum and gallery system because they hinder the creative process of the artists. Land art was born in the 1960s when artists would go into natural spaces and work with flowers, trunks, plants, water, rocks, and mosses to build large works that attract the attention of the public who visit forests, lakes, and deserts. Nils’ artwork can be divided into two categories: sculptures created in nature and urban art that brings forth hints of nature into cities. He typically spends several days observing the natural space with its various animals, plants, shadows, and light before he begins collecting his materials. Nils never fails to use nests as a metaphor and reminder that mother nature and the Earth are our loving home. In essence, Nils’ philosophy embodies the notion that environmental art does not last forever in time yet it moves and grows with it.
Environmental artists including Edith and Nils use their artwork to raise awareness about climate change and symbolize its effects in a manner that sparks emotions- the catalyst for change.
Photo from: Nils Udo
Discussion Questions:
Have you ever seen exhibitions of environmental art? If so, where?
What are your interpretations of this type of art?
Works Cited:
A. (2016, June 2). Nils Udo. Art for the Environment. https://ecoartseurope.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/nils-udo/
Bonanomi, G. (2021, June 19). Edith Meusnier. English | Metal Magazine. https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/interview/edith-meusnier-open-air-and-fibre-art
Meusnier, E. (2021, March 17). Edith Meusnier. Textile Curator.
Darabas, Susanne. “A Short History of Environmental Art.” Green Art Collection, 2014. Environment & Society Portal (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society) http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/6806
Meusnier, E. M. (2020). Fibre Art and Open Air. Edith Meusnier, Paysages d’Artifice. https://www.edithmeusnier.fr/fiber-art-and-open-air/
Nature Land Art Installations by Nils Udo. (2016, July 28). Fubiz Media. http://www.fubiz.net/en/2016/07/28/nature-land-art-installations-by-nils-udo/
Smith, B. H. (2020, May 14). Looking at the Masters: Edith Meusnier by Beverly Hall Smith. The Chestertown Spy.
Udo, N. U. (2021, March 15). Art in nature. Nils Udo. https://www.nils-udo.com/art-in-nature/?lang=en