2013 Site_Specific Land Art Biennale

The Site_Specific Land Art Biennale is an event that will take place in Plettenberg Bay and surrounds during the week of 10 - 17 August 2013. As artists are working on setting up various ephemeral land art installations, visitors and locals will be able to observe their progress and attend public lectures and performances. You can also register and participate in Site_Specific's Public Programmes!

More than 40 local and international artists, including Cornelia Konrads from Germany, Won-Gil Jeon from Korea and Strijdom van der Merwe from Stellenbosch, will create temporary art works from natural materials during this week. The Biennale is hosted by Site_Specific, a not-for-profit association which aims to raise public awareness of environmental issues through their work. The event gives prominent artists the opportunity to produce works inspired by the natural surroundings and involves the public via an extensive education programme, calligraphy workshop and ecological land art walk from Nature’s Valley to Keurboomstrand.

For more information have a look at the Site_Specific Art Events Facebook page (facebook.com/sitespecific.landart) or website www.sitespecific.org.za

Do you believe Mother Nature has rights?

Go and check it out at www.naturerightsafrica.org

Browse the Archives or hop over to...

You might have seen this coming, judging mainly from the increasing silences between posts... This blog will no longer be updated, but will remain as resource to Green Artists. Please hop over to the links page for websites, blogs and other information about Greening your Art!

If you'd like to read more of the editor's writing, then follow the digital trail that leads to the following blogs:

• www.landartsouthafrica.blogspot.com
  About land art projects and earth works in South Africa, or by South African artists
• www.kalaharitomboy.co.za
  Creative Living, including eco art, which is where my experiments in creating my own eco-friendly painting materials will be published and shared from now on!

Happy reading, and keep creating eco-conscious art!!

Delays, silence and "real world" activity

I apologize for the relative inactivity on the blog. The absence of updates and posts by no means means that nothing is happening in the world of "Green Art". Actually, quite the opposite is true! I, and I'm sure the other writers who occasionally publish to the blog, have been busy in the 'real' or non-digital world with a variety of projects and other 'responsibilities'. For me one of these projects are the second Green Art exhibition to be held at the Green Expo, at the CTICC in Cape Town at the end of November. For more information about the exhibition, check out www.artlovenature.co.za/greenart, or contact me at art@janetbotes.co.za to get involved in some way.

Not so much art related, but equally important is the anti-GMO marches against Monsanto on 25 May 2013. Nutrition and nourishment is essential if you want to be a healthy, happy and creative person, and the dangers that Genetically Modified food poses are a very important issue that we should all be aware of and also fight as much as we possibly can. Follow http://www.acbio.org.za/ for updates about Genetically Modified food issues in Africa, and http://labelgmfoods.org.za/. There is also a Facebook group called Artists Against Monsanto - https://www.facebook.com/ArtistsAgainstMonsanto. Here's an image from their wall, by Jonte Fuchsbau, of the Berlin march against Monsanto:

What has been happening in your life and in your studio? Have you experimented with any new earth-friendly techniques? Some of the best ways, in my opinion, to create art that keeps the environment in mind is to:

• Make your own paint, pastels and ink. There are many resources and recipes that you can find with just a little bit of research on the internet and in your local library. 
• Look at the artistic methods of the artists from previous centuries - wax art, egg tempera and plant dyes are some examples of 'old' techniques that are, in fact, timeless and much lighter in impact on the earth. 
• Make things - sculptures, collage works, accessories, tools, artwork frames - from 'waste' materials, especially using materials like foil and non-recyclable plastic that would end up on a landfill. 
• Reuse food packaging to store your art materials and trinkets, you can also paint or decorate them if you don't like the 'look' of them.

...there are so many more ways. Feel free to share some of your ideas and methods as a comment below!

Nature in Expressive Movement

In 2010 Karl Cronin from San Francisco got backing from sponsors on Kickstarter for a project in which he documents the movement patterns of plants and animals. It's facinating work and I love watching his reenactments of these movement patterns. View the Somatic Natural History Archive at naturalhistory.us and dryearth.org



You can also read more about the project at Cargo Collective, the Movement Research Blog, and a review by Cathy Fitzgerald entitled "Performance artist creates movement portraits of 10,000 plants and animals".



When looking at a project like this, I am reminded how endless the possibilities are for art or creativity to express and explore our natural world, and to educate people about the wonders of nature! 

Are you working on a project focused on appreciating, researching, archiving, expressing and/or exploring the natural environment, animals or the landscape? Share it on this blog - email your story to artlovenature@gmail.com.