Introduction
word and vernacular in language, just as the referencing of real living environ-
ments can reenter the language of contemporary artmaking. Environmental
art has long interested me, and in the early days it was as much the environ-
ment of the gallery space as it was the site-specific outdoor artwork. Gradually
the context of the art gallery space seemed arbitrary—could be anywhere—
and seemed less and less relevant, even if the ideas, concepts, and approach to
materials were interesting. Permaculture—that is, the culture of nature—
which I believe sustains the ephemeraculture of mass consumption and pro-
duction, seemed the place to begin investigating the crossover between the
creative impulse and nature.
Materials—truth to materials—is an old axiom that has been around
since the early days of modernism. But the parameters have shifted just as the
paradigm has. Truth to materials still holds true for me. But no longer is this
truth relegated simply to objects, nor does the object have to be segregated from
what is around it. The two can now intertwine, and develop a dialogue on site,
place, materials, and existence. The economies we have built out of the natural
world, along with its correspondent tautology of progress, are still reliant on
resources just as they have always been. Resources in art are no different than
elsewhere; they derive from nature. In fact all materials—natural or so-called
synthetic—ultimately derive from nature. The dilemmas of contemporary
criticism are in part the result of a failure to identify with the holistic basis of
art, not only in a visual, symbolic, or conceptual way, but more importantly, in
realizing that nature is the art of which we are a part. This may seem a grand
generalization. But as generalizations go—it makes perfect sense. Our bodies
ingest nature as food. We breathe the air. The cars we drive are nature recon-
figured. Even our unconscious thoughts and dreams and our conscious thoughts
are influenced by our immediate environment and experiences.
By realizing we are a part of nature, even if we live abstracted, decontex-
tualized lives in major cities, we can gather a holistic sense of purpose in our
lives that would otherwise be relegated to distraction, delusion, and distem-
pered life. Contemporary criticism often addresses public issues, questions of
siting, and public space. Its an interesting part of the contemporary art scene.
But unless public art gets beyond the production of imagery to investigate the
process of life unfolding around us, it will remain decorative, an adjunct to,
and not a beacon of consolidation, something that engenders a holistic sense
of purpose beyond the political. There is an ethic to life. Artmaking has an
ethics, even if it involves simply deciding what materials to use—leaves
instead of stones, or wood in the place of earth. The installation that ingests—
places itself in an environment with a sense of the place—is exciting. The
drama is in this sense of place, of participating in a living history. Unseen
variables play a role in outdoor nature-based art works: weather, climate,
vegetation, other living species, the quality of light, and the seasons.
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Introduction
These dialogues will provide the reader with a variety of artists’ own
views on the process of their artmaking and viewpoints on the place of nature
in art. With a better understanding of how the art-nature phenomenon is
occurring simultaneously in many places, among a great variety of artists, in
many countries, and how this synchronicity is no accident, readers will be
provided with a broader worldview. It evidences the urgent need for contem-
porary art to embrace the nature phenomenon as an ongoing part of the
dialogue on humanity’s place in nature.
NOTES
1. Marshall McLuhan and Bruce Powers, “Global Robotism: The Dis-
satisfactions” in The Global Village; Transformations in World Life and Media in
the Twenty-first Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 97.
2. E. B. White, “Removal,” reprinted in One Man’s Meat. New York:
Harper Colophon, 1983, p. 3.
3. Robert Hughes, “Take This Revolution . . .” Time magazine, Spring
1995, p. 77,
4. James George, Asking for the Earth: Waking Up to the Spiritual/
Ecological Crisis. Rockport, Mass.: Element, 1995, p. 154.
5. “A Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects,” in Artforum, Sept.
1969, reprinted in Nancy Holt (ed.), The Writings of Robert Smithson: Essays
with Illustrations. New York: NYU Press, 1979, p. 82.
The author would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec (CALQ)
and the RLP Foundation for providing some financial support for this project.
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