Art took root at MICDS when Middle School Art Teachers JoAnne Vogel and Jayme Zimmer launched a Land Art project with sixth graders!
They centered on the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art in natural and urban settings. With a crash course in land art installations, students were tasked with designing and building site-specific rock sculptures of their own in a self-chosen spot on the Freeman Arts Center grounds.
As a lead-up to the unit, students studied the elements and principles of design. Elements are used to create a work of art, and principles define how they are used, so the students manipulated wood blocks to test the different design mechanics. They also learned about sculpture—a three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining materials—and land art, created in nature, using natural materials such as rocks, soil, and leaves.
Vogel and Zimmer further detailed specific concepts for the land art project, such as balance, symmetry, asymmetry, texture, pattern, rhythm, and contrast. Additionally, sixth graders learned Goldsworthy-specific concepts such as environmental art, transient, natural decay, and harmony with nature.
Armed with this knowledge, they dove into the work of Goldsworthy to understand the difference between permanent and non-permanent artworks. As an artist, Goldsworthy works in the hot sun, wind, snow, and cold to build his ephemeral pieces and aims to magnify existing natural processes through minimal intervention in the landscape. Most of his works are small in scale and temporary in their installation. Any color in a piece comes directly from the natural surroundings. Photography plays a crucial role in Goldsworthy’s work and allows the work to be shared without disruption to the site as each piece “grows, stays, or decays.” He created serpentine walls and spiral rock and leaf formations and is considered the founder of modern rock balancing.*
Students also learned about two female land artists, Mary Miss and Agnes Denes. Mary Miss places her landpieces in highly trafficked public spaces like the Union Square subway station in New York and Beijing’s Olympic Park. Miss often highlights transitional points in the landscape—where land meets water or valleys turn into mountains—and transforms them into areas for exploration and meditation.*
Agnes Denes is best known for her environmental intervention Wheatfield – A Confrontation (1982)*, bringing a vacant lot in lower Manhattan to life with two acres of golden wheat. By early fall that year, over one thousand pounds of grain had been harvested to help “end world hunger.”
Most importantly, students explored the question: Why is it art? Some shared that it’s an idea that wants to be made, a form of self-expression, or to create contrast with the everyday world. They found that it’s a question with many answers!
These young artists honed their collaboration and communication skills by creating with a partner and gained valuable experience working with the elements and principles of art when designing their three-dimensional artworks. After drafting their ideas on paper and scouting the area around the Freeman Arts Building, they chose the site for their sculptures, making final design tweaks along the way.
Installation day arrived, and much like Goldsworthy, our intrepid sixth graders worked in the cold, whipping wind to place their rock formations on the land, buildings, and trees. Vogel shared, “The students took to the natural materials (rocks!) without skipping a beat. Many even collected additional materials once they were outside. They were thoughtful about the viewer’s experience as they built their sculptures, discussing what it would look like from different points of view.”
Evan Smith ’31 said, “I liked that I got to be creative and make something with rocks. It was challenging because I had to find a spot and build a piece of art that interacted with it.” Charlie Martin ’31 enjoyed working alongside nature. He said, “I really enjoyed working with natural materials and exploring our creativity outdoors. One challenge I faced was collaborating with my peers to ensure our vision came together cohesively. I was surprised by how much the project pushed us to think outside the box and engage with our environment in a new way.”
The works delivered a vibrant and engaging surprise to passersby. The students’ intentional designs stood out and blended with the natural elements in the area, providing a new way to view the area’s trees, parking island, brick wall, gutter drain, and more, drawing the viewer in to see what else is around the bend.
*Goldsworthy is the creator of Stone Sea, a limestone network of arches, at the St. Louis Art Museum.
*Pool Complex: Orchard Valley, by Mary Miss, can be experienced at Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis.
*Photos of Wheatfield by Agnes Denes can be viewed at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis.