"Land Marks, an Exhibition Featuring Earthworks Artists," is now on display in the Lila Acheson Wallace Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through August 18. Featuring 19 works that draw inspiration from the earth, the collection is reflective of the countercultural influences of the era that led to an ecological awareness about our interaction with the natural environment.
While today's artists may make their statements by using the street as their canvas, before the built environment was so extensive, creatives saw the natural environment as a medium for communication. Land Art emerged in the late 1960s, as artists realized its potential in specific terrains as sites for creating works of art, recognizing the naturally occurring and man-made marks that shape the land. While some "Earthworks" are sculptural pieces, others are multimedia images that trace back the history resulting from the current state of the environment. Since works of Land Art are bound to a physical location, artists relied on mass media and photography to propagate their work. Applying their works to the present era's networked world would create an extension of their messages, as our environment is more exploited than ever today.
