More experimentation with leaves

I like having the small twigs with leaves placed together like this because it's like the leaves are standing together. Although I don't think the white space created works with the twigs harmoniously. 

I really like this, it's simple and I think I have place the leaves together in a manner where the leaves compliment each other. For this work to be presented effectively the piece would have to be at least three metres in length. having the leaves flow at such a length would give the appearence of a landscape or like the leaves are travelling with the winds. The only problem is that I don't have the time to collect a role of paper that is 3m x 1 m. However, this gives me an idea for a future project. 

Experimentation

I arranged the leaves into colours: leaves with hues of red, hues of greens, neutral, smears of black (from campfires?) and vibrant colours. 

I decide to arrange them into a swirling clock-wise wind pattern, in which the colours started off neutral, black, green and then red. I liked the solid form created but I was unsure about the white space.

I tried introducing in a leaves attached to thin branches to fill the white space but I think introducing  leaves that aren't following the clock-wise pattern affects the balance of the piece negatively. 

After analysing the piece, I decided that it didn't excite me, it looked harmonious and nice but it didn't have the quality that instantly caught my attention. 

Leaves and chunks of branches

Leaves:

 Some of the leaves I was finding were quite unusual and varied as there were many shapes, sizes, textures,colours, ages and patterns. The vast detail of leaves is fascinating: the dark spots, the crinkles, the dark outer, the change in colour, 

Also the evidence of bugs is very interesting, they leave bite holes, lumps of eggs and webs. Leaves are a documentation of there surroundings of bugs, types of trees, weather conditions, people and other animals.

Here are a a few of the many leaves I collected:

I also tried collecting chunks of branches as I like the bold contrast between the bark and the exposed branch, like the shell and the skin. However, in the area I was searching I didn't manage to find many chunks. 

Artist Inspiration: Kazuhito Takadoi

Artist:

• Kazuhito Takadoi is a gardener and an artist, while Nikolaus Lang is an archaeologist and an artist. It is interesting and exciting when artist combine their work with other hobbies. 
• minimalist Japanese aesthetic, ideals for balance, space and simple forms
• Interested in the use of light and how it expresses shadows and details like decay.

Work: 

• Creates pictures using leaves, twigs and grass from his garden
• sews moderately dry materials onto handmade japanese paper
• colours and textures of his materials change through time
• collecting process: separates natural materials into shades and colour

Takadoi simple piece has gone through multiple processes and attention to detail. To begin he created a circle of grass through placing strands of grass through the holes of a piece of paper (image below). Then he has sewn thin strands of leaves to the outer of the circle and then sewn them off center from the middle. . He has used the colour of the grass strands to emphasise the three-dimensional quality of the sphere. For instance, he creates shadow using darker strands and uses lighter strands to create the highlights. Placing the long rigid branch contrasts with the soft and light qualities of the sphere. 

This work appears to be an abstraction of a tree with no leaves. The organic white puffs look like a cocoon attached to the tree, in which the scale has reversed. The large scale of the lifeless white puffs compared to the sparse tree gives me the thought that the cocoon is seeping out energy and life from the tree like a leech. It is very apparent the Takadoi utilises the contrast between circular and rigid forms. 

http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/garden-art.html

Artist work inspiration: 'Falling Garden' by Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger

Falling Garden
San Staë church on the Canale Grande
50th Biennial of Venice, 2003

What?

·          Botanical curios suspended from the ceiling of a 17^th century church in Venice

·          3 dimensional botanic display against decorated Italian marble      

Gerda Steiner and Jorg Lenzlinger statement of the work:

 ‘The Doge (Mocenigo) needed a church so as to be able to have a monumental tomb built for himself, the church (San Staë) needed a saint so as to be able to be built, the saint (San Eustachio) needed a miracle so as to be pronounced a saint, the miracle needed a stag in order to be seen, and we built the garden for the reindeer.
The visitors lie on the bed above the doge’s gravestone, and the garden thinks for them.’

•    Doge needed a church to have a monumental tomb
•     The church needed a saint to be built
•   The saint needed a miracle to be known as a saint
•    The miracle needs a stag in order to be seen
•    The falling garden is built for the stag

Motivation/ Why does it exist?

·          Tribute to the Doge

•     The ‘Stag’ in the artist’s comments is a metaphor for the Doge (Duke)
•  Stag symbolises strength, dominance within nature
•    The ‘Stag’ is an appropriate metaphor as the Duke was the ‘chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice’
•   The relationship between the Duke and his followers may be represented through how ‘The Falling Garden’ interacts with the interior space of the church.

-    The church represents the tomb of the Duke

-    ‘The falling garden’ represents the followers of the Duke

• ‘The falling garden’ is placed in a sporadic yet mindful manner that considers the architecture
•  Although the ‘falling garden’ could represent the peace and stillness of the Doge in his tomb
•  The installation also represents the contrast between life and death, past and present  

  Design site specific installations

-    Steiner and Lenzlinger design an installation in response to its surroundings

-    This contrasts with Nikohlauas Lang’s work, in which he creates art pieces that reference a site.

-    Although the botanic collection includes curios from different places such as Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, South Korea and India; which is similar to Langs process of creating art pieces specific to landscapes in different countries
 

·          Artists believe the Doge (duke) is entombed in the center with a grin on his skull:

-    Reflects the vibrancy of the dead curios of nature

How do people interact with it?

·   Visitors lie on the floor

·          As suggested by the artists, lie on the gravestone’s bed

-    Best view of the installation as if they were the Doge

·          ‘Visitors thoughts are free to drift as the garden thinks for them’

- This could represent the control that the Doge had over his followers

Artist work Inspiration:'Global tree Project:Hanging Garden' by Shiniji Turner-Yamamoto

Shinji’s experience:

‘I saw a large uprooted oak in a forest. It lay as if sleeping on a gently sloping grass-covered hill. When I returned a few days later, the tree had disappeared. In place of its roots remained a scar, a mound of raw earth. I envisioned a new tree growing on this mound’

·         He uses words like ‘sleeping’ and ‘gently’ that relate to people, to reinforce the connection between people and nature

·         He relates the mortality of people with the uprooting of the oak tree

-          The disappearance of the tree leaves a scar on its environment like how the death of a loved one can leave their close ones mourning

·         He relates the birth of a newborn with the ‘mound of raw earth’ that is left behind

-          ‘mound of raw earth’ provides space for new life

·         Shinija views the importance between the connection between present and past like Nikohlaus Lang

‘Like Inanna-Ishtar, goddess of Sumerian myth, I wanted to pluck this uprooted tree and bring it to my sacred garden. I wanted the tree to lie and sleep, envisioning a new world like the dream of the world that emerges from the Indian god Vishnu’s navel in the form of a lotus flower.’

·       -   Shinija writes about theory of life after death, in which we are born again as another living being

What?

Uprooted oak tree

What was the motivation and why does it exist?

As historian of religion Mircea Eliade wrote:

‘If the plant and we come from the same uterus, we are twins. We didn’t die from the separation, as do some conjoined twins, but, somehow we need to be together with them.’

•         Humans are connected/ born with nature
• 
  
•          We are separated from nature
• 
  
•          We have an intrinsic feeling to be together

With his Global Tree Project:

•         Attempts to heal our wounds of this separation
• 
  
•          Reopen our connection with trees
• 
  
•          New vision through them

Artist:

·         “My creative journey centers on the search for and affirmation of manifestations of universal connections between mankind and nature”

‘In doing so we are freed from limitations of death’

-          To understand the connections between mankind and nature we learn to think and wonder beyond the limitations of death.

-          Eg. When an apple tree dies, the seeds of the apples will plant opportunities for new life

-          Therefore when we die, could there be opportunity for new life? 

·         “My work is inspired by my emotional reactions to specific events in landscape”

-          This relates to my response to Nikohlaus Lang’s ‘Ochre and Sand’ work, in which I associated aspects of his work with experiences and feelings I have had.

·         ‘Indigenous organic materials allow me to enter into the landscape’

‘ the works become a visual record of my experience of landscape’

-          I want my work to communicate the landscape where I had collected the  materials

Artist work of inspiration from SA Art Gallery: 'Ochre and Sand' by Nikolaus Lang

“Ochre and Sand: Dedicated to the Vanished Tribes of the Flinders Ranges and Adelaide Area”

Date: 1987

Artist: Nikolaus Lang

-        

When young, buried bones and then unearthed them to document the ground      

•    Connecting the past with the present through displaying the cycle / flux of nature

o   Walks through landscape and collects natural materials

o   Chooses areas where the distant past and present intersect

•           Believes this is a country of extremes:

o   Feast and famine

o   Boom and bust

o   Drought and deluge

o   Enlightenment and myopia

o   Natural and technological

•         Questions values of contemporary art through not using art supplies traditionally associated with art making
• What? Consists of conical mounds of bright coloured natural ground pigments from rocks, sand and earth of the Australian dessert.  Same materials used by the Aboriginals to create art. Arranged on pristine fine white art paper. ‘deigned to be set upon the floor so that an audience can walk up to and around it in close proximity’

Motivation of work & Why does it exist?

•          Dedicated to the vanished tribes of Flinders Ranges and Adelaide
•          References both art of indigenous people and the Australian landscape
•           Referencing the Australian landscape to challenge the European perception that the landscape is monotonous and mundane
•           To bring the past of indigenous people to the present
•           Express the colours of nature
•           Interest in contrast between nature and man-made ( Use of paper as base for sand)
•         Collected objects such as nature and ‘relics of our throwaway society’ on journeys around the globe( Documented where each object was found). 

Why is this work significant enough to be chosen for collection in AGSA?

•          Reference to Australian landscape and the Indigenous
•          Textural quality and colour

My response to seeing ‘Ochre and Sand’:

Sense of peacefulness as it brought me to imagine a warm and calming environment

This was created through the textural quality, use of colour, pattern, and shape of the paper and use of sand

Textural quality:

-          The roughness of the sand enabled me to imagine how the art piece felt

Colour:

-          The use of warm hues reminds me of qualities of summer, like to feel the heat and heaviness in the air

Pattern:

-          The flowing and blurred pattern reminds me of the slow winds of a summer’s night

-          The organic lines remind me of the slow breathing partaken in hot yoga

Concave shape of paper:

-          The curved shape is welcoming and emphasises the organic pattern of the sand

Use of sand:

-          The use of sand enables me to imagine the feeling of digging my toes and feet into the sand of a beach. This feeling is very relaxing and reminds me of the calming sounds associated with the beach.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/multicultural_art/artists/construct_ourselves/co_art10_nikolaus.html