A Study On Land Art

Land Art, which emerged in the1960s in America, characterizes its direct introduction of the nature into art. On one hand, it’s the expansion of traditional painting and art of sculpture. Firstly, it’s different from painting. Land Art depicts real natural changes in time instead of traditional landscape paintings which are merely plain description of a resting nature. Secondly, it’s different from sculptures. Land Art portrays the temporal being of the nature, or the universe you might say, instead of the traditional sculptures which only occupy natural spaces through artificiality. For another, Land Art is also an extension of the traditional garden art. Taking human beings and the nature as a consecutive unity, Land Art not only creates its sight from human’s feelings in the nature, but also pursues the ecological harmony between the humans and the nature. All the artistic innovation above shall be based on an important premise—being present in the nature. Land Art, therefore, changes the nature which modernism takes as objective and profitable into the nature that is valued for appreciation by using the relationship between the humans and the nature as an entrance. In fact, the word "land" in "Land Art" is just a metaphor of the nature. When we brought the nature into aesthetic appreciation, Land Art invites a series of thoughts about the relationship between the humans and the environment, the society and the world, and the relationship between art and the nature, the society, life and etc.Characteristic language system of Land Art, which are nature trends, information and process, are formed in the thinking process of above questions. The three components supplement and complement each other, to maintain harmony between mankind, the nature and the society. Firstly, Land Art explores the scope of art in nature to reveal rich human nature. Away from the traditional evaluation system, Land Art bridges the gap between art and nature, the world and the self, the human being and the landscape, to enter the purity of nature. Nature material are preferred in Land Art, and the participation of natural process are emphasized in art creation, even the human body can become art material. Secondly, Land Art captures the diversion of Informatics meanwhile. Information plays an important role in reproduction of power structure, class relationship and daily life. Land Art expects to make use of information to create social vitality, and finally makes information become the artwork of itself. This abstract information concept are materialized by Land Art into nature, and grows vulgar forms like pyramid and gigantic street painting in primitive culture of ancient American Indian, to endow it with the significance of religion indoctrination of both spirit worship and living practice. Finally, Land Art indulges in perception and expression of the process of’Being in the world’. The value of process are manifested, this replaces the value of result in past artworks. Land Art interprets the value of art with human experience of nature, the art exploration and practice have the tendency of process-centered. In Land Art, process replaces entity, and experience replaces static condition.While the language system of Land Art is established, it precisely proposes its idea of art---to construct romantic physical and spiritual homeland for human being by re-establishing the existence of art as the holy light of the world.On one hand, the lofty ideal of Land Art starts with the question of the meaning of art. Artistic entropy changes were dominating the situation, and Land Art which fought against it highlighted that the problems were due to the omission of artists. Land Art, therefore, emphasized the social values of artists, and the connection between art and life. It not only endeavors to revive the holiness of art, but also struggles to resume its social responsibility. Land Art turns art and the world into an ancient religious metaphor, based on inspiration from Zen thought from the East, primitive culture of ancient American Indians and Maurece Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, to build its own lofty ideal of becoming flamen of human spirit. Land Art leads positive attitude towards separation problem between human being and nature, human being and society, as well as society and nature, and tries to restore our belief in the nature as a spirit holy land by revealing the nature of human beings. One side, Land Art attempts to use art to stimulate holiness in human being, to reset the scale of soul and behavior of human being. On the other side, Land Art attempts to use art to regain holiness of nature, by revealing the core and power of nature to make its beauty revived. By this, Land Art has started to reveal its conscious of rebuilding homeland of human being. Not only has Land Art a lofty and scared spirit ideal on art, but also a dependable and simple attitude in life in life.On the other hand, the home consciousness of Land Art started with ecological understanding of nature. What are the characteristics of the nature? How does art be derived from the nature from the entity and spirit’s point of view? How does homeland in Land Art be derived from the ecological significance in nature? Land Art criticizes the formalism of modernism in art, and takes its attention and supporting of western ecological movements as basic circumstances in the understanding of the nature. The holy cognition of nature is formed, and Land Art put it into the concept of environment and ecology which derived from life area. Such environment is spatial imbedding after the thought of the relation between nature and human being, while ecology is involvement of time. From Land Art’s point of view, they are both extensions of homeland, and reveal the essential characteristics of life area of human being. Place is the basis of homeland in Land Art, the placeness in Land Art stands for being in the real world, it not only includes the real world of the art form, but also the spiritual place for settling human life. Therefore, the aesthetic value of the largest scale in nature is discovered by Land Art, as well represent the significance of existence of human emotion in appreciation of the nature. Thus the homeland which maintains the harmony of human being and nature for body and soul are regained, it will provide human being a place to recover their sensibility value of existence, which is the experience of living in the nature and being in the world.Recognition and judgment of Land Art in this thesis were formed in the discussion and the analysis of the concept "home". There are some unique perspectives in the aesthetic cognition of the nature, the thinking over the unity of the humans and the nature, the acknowledgement of the holiness and spirit value of human beings and the attempt of taking art as an innovative power in the reformation of life and society. As in Land Art, art means nature, revitalization of zoology, energy of the society and goal of life. Land Art gives life to the myth that art could be the world’s spirit. And, it helps human beings recognize limitations in the society and life situation, shows them the right direction. Moreover, Land Art has managed to experience the dream in which art functions as the strong connection between the past, the present and the future.