Ephemeral Art February 2015 

‘Ephemeral art is usually understood as reflecting a desire to dematerialize the art object in order to evade the demands of the market, or to democratize or challenge art museums.’

There has been a few time in the past year where I have been inspired and become more aware of different forms of artwork. The more time I spend in nature and using natural materials to work, the more doors open. A women from school said “you have to see Andy Goldsworthy’s work you will love it”, and a new world opened.

Then a  chance visit to GOMA (Queensland Gallery of Modern Art) and Richard Long was doing an artist talk, his concepts were so matter of fact and devoid of contrived layers of meaning. He simply did what he did because it fascinated and satisfied him, a lot of the questions that were directed at him asked about convoluted ideas and concepts, he simply brought the answers back to a basic grounded facts. He began the work as a student playing with ideas of time and place, and this has continued, he walks, its simple and sometimes makes things along the way (there is also other work with mud and site specific gallery work), but it was the walks and his ability to keep it simple that really resonated with me.

1967 Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking ; 1974 Five Stones

The last piece of this puzzle fell into place when Australian artist Shona Wilson announced a workshop which she entitles “Collaborations with Nature” to be held nearby in Eumundi (Thanks to artist Amy Clarke for Hosting). Its funny that I needed to give myself permission to go into an open space and play with found objects. The day was ridiculously hot, which added to the slow and deliberate effort to find things and shade to make within. Eventually I embraced the heat, put my hat on my head, and at one point submerged all my clothes, wrap and head in water in the bathroom so I could get some cool relief. The day seemed so short, but like a dream that had so many layers, taking time away from the normal, and immersing myself in the experience gave me a bit more courage to think about how my work can move outside of a studio.

That was November last year, and although I loved the process I haven’t been brave enough to do it again, I find the fear and the little doubt voices creep into my head. The dialogue goes something like this

“What are you going to make?” “Its not going to be any good” “You will look ridiculous in a open space playing with sticks or other” “You don’t have time”

So I have in my heart a plan that soon I will set some ‘time’ aside and get my stubborn head on and just go and do something, anything, no idea what, but I will just give it a go… hopefully… maybe…. sometime….

Images of work that I did at the Collaborations with Nature Workshop, facilitated by Shona Wilson.

Here is a short video showing the last finished work from the Workshop.

Inspiration:

Books

Artist Land Nature by Mel Gooding

Andy Goldsworthy: Enclosure

Wood: Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy: A collaboration with nature

Article about John Cage http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jul/10/john-cage-composer-drawings-exhibition

Locations

Andy Goldsworthy at Kenilworth Queensland http://www.blueskyview.com.au/Blue_Sky_View/Andy_Goldsworthy.html

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQiHfgFnY_A

Websites

http://www.richardlong.org

http://www.shonawilson.com

http://www.stickwork.net

http://www.artsconnectinc.com.au/ephemeral-artists.html

Pinterest is an incredible source of images for this work

References

1 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ephemeral

2 Mary ONeill Ephemeral art: mourning and loss 2007 https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/8012