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Beyond the Canvas: What’s the Buzz around Environmental Art & Installations

sutithi5

Updated: Jan 27

“Away, away, from men and towns, 

To the wild wood and the downs, — 

To the silent wilderness, 

Where the soul need not repress its music.”


 —Percy Bysshe Shelley


famous environmental art examples
Nature Sculptures Showcasing Harmony

Let’s start on this note. Art and wilderness have long been holding hands, just like true pals. In that sense, environmental art is deeply connected with traditional art that we are used to experiencing and recognizing, sharing a symbiotic relationship that focuses on humanity's bond with nature. Nature and natural landscapes have always inspired artists, as they were incessantly drawn to painting the lush flora, fauna, portraying the environment's beauty, and fragility in varied art forms. From here on, environmental art and artists take a step forward.


This symbiotic relationship is nurtured further by engaging directly with the environment, creating artworks that use natural materials or materials that exist within our ecological settings. By these creations, an artist is keen on raising an awareness about several environmental issues, to ensure sustainability, and inspire the viewers to think about the impacts these parameters have on our mother nature. This art is a rare blend of creativity with nature consciousness and ecological conservation that is served through aesthetic and artistic expressions, just like creating a bird’s nest with an artist’s intervention. Let’s go deeper into this immersive eco-art experience and find out how they are impacting the art scene, shaping our consciousness about living happily with nature.


famous works of  environmental artists
Nature Art with a Rare Insight | Timeless Spirals

Bridging Creativity and Sustainability with Environmental Art


Environmental art, or eco-art, is a concept of art that focuses on ecological conservation and making people aware of the issues related to conservation of the planet using simple and natural elements. You can be a part of this marvelous nature art as an environmental artist working with mediums such as painting, photography, sculpture, drama, dance, or any medium. Using driftwood, soil, twigs, shells, etc., create marvelous environmental artworks for indoors or outdoors, and take a step towards caring for nature. That means a lot!                        

Why environmental art? Yes, we need to create more engaging campaigns for conservation of nature as a habitat and care for the little things that we mostly take for granted. It is indeed a powerful and awe-inspiring form of artistic expression that reflects ecological challenges while merging art and awareness in a seamless blend. In a world grappling with issues like climate change, deforestation, and resource depletion, this art can bring some fresh bouts of air through creativity and sustainability, urging people to reconsider our place in this vast planet. So, how aesthetically or artistically can we as artists and global citizens try this unique and innovative art form? Let’s find out some of the phenomenal creations with clay, beads, muds, grasses, ice, and woods. They are no less than head-turners!


andy goldsworthy ice sculpture nature
Amazing Ice Sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy

What are Environmental Installations?


“We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”

-         Andy Goldsworthy


Aptly remarked by a great environmental artist, Andy Goldsworthy, who has created some ephemeral land art creations with sticks, stones, leaves, ice, etc. to showcase nature’s beauty in its transient form. These environmental installations go beyond portraying nature; they involve a harmonious installation using various natural materials. Thus, environmental artists strive to make more meaningful connections with elements that lie at the heart of these artistic expressions.


famous nature art andy goldsworthy
‘Storm King Wall,’ a massive installation by British artist Andy Goldsworthy

The Emotional Angle and Eco-Art Forms: Some Rare Creations


·    The ‘Storm King Wall,’ a rare installation by the British artist Andy Goldsworthy, is a long stretched dry stone wall creation, almost having a serpentine look, going through the forest, and getting downhill in a nearby pond, only to be extended up to 750 feet. It is just amazing to have such natural installations evoking profound emotions. Human intervention has caused much threat to the beauty of nature, and these artists try to make that issue surface through their art, time and time over.


·    Art captivates while conveying a deep, penetrating message. It is best conveyed through some thought-provoking nature works by Maya Lin, a renowned Vietnamese architect and environmental artist in her iconic work ‘What is Missing?’ – a science-based art project that seamlessly blends art, science, and activism to address the issues of habitat loss, merging awe and awareness.


·    Another remarkable work can be Olafur Eliasson’s installation ‘Ice Watch,’ that showcases some melting blocks of glacial ice in the urban landscape creating an instinctive call for climate change and its impact. In the modern era of conflicts and human indifference towards nature, environmental art strikes a fine balance between reflecting and inspiring — making it an agenda for establishing a connection with that supreme force that transcends everything.


“Art has the capacity to make us feel connected to something larger than ourselves”

-         Eliasson


environmental artists and creations
 Olafur Eliasson’s Installation ‘Ice Watch' | Showing Concern for Climate Change

Issues and Challenges Faced by Environmental Art: Conservation Issues and the Issue of Impermanence


·     Use of unconventional materials: Environmental artists or eco-art installations require unconventional materials and techniques. The viewers must be open enough to embrace these art forms which are far beyond the usual lines and forms, often involving elements in their raw and unadulterated form, making them more challenging and unconventional for the people to comprehend.  


·    The element of transience: Often environmental artworks engage materials that are ephemeral and short-lived, exposed to the natural process of decaying. This issue of impermanence often makes them vulnerable and raises a genuine need for conservation of these forms of art.


Technology and Social Media to Boost Environmental Art 


With technology taking a giant leap towards minimizing the physical limitations for the installation artists for nature art, artists try digital installations, virtual and augmented reality (VR) or (AR), intricate 3 dimensional creations with Google’s ‘Tilt Brush’ etc. Social media has an active role to play here, while spreading the awareness messages globally, inspiring more people to embrace this unique form of conservation art, and encouraging mass action. Followers in Instagram, Twitter or TikTok can watch for nature installation arts, eco-themed creations, so that people get the hang of the need for conservation. A perfect blend of art and innovation is needed to address the pressing issues of habitat loss, forestry, climate change, etc. that have been plaguing human mind and consciousness for long. Technology can accelerate this real-world change to act towards a better and greener earth.


nature art installation and art installation
Natural Material Face Sculpture | Eco Art

Engaging Communities into Conceptual Eco Art


“The Earth is what we all have in common.”


-         Wendell Berry


Have you seen the work of conceptual artist Agnes Denes? Her ‘Wheatfield – A Confrontation’ transformed an empty Manhattan land into a wheatfield, a temporary installation that was planted in the spring and harvested in the summer season of that year 1982. It was themed after wheatfield as a means of commerce, trade, livelihood, food and energy, and issues related to hunger, ecological concern. It was a call for shared responsibility and community participation to protect that piece of land with its natural resources from climate change, hunger, and other concerns. The symbolic art was to target the viewers to act collectively to battle the evils of modernization.  


“My decision to plant a wheat field in Manhattan instead of designing just another public sculpture, grew out of the longstanding concern and need to call attention to our misplaced priorities and deteriorating human values,”


 - Agnes


agnes denes wheatfield and environment
Agnes Denes | ‘Wheatfield – A Confrontation’

What Lies Ahead for Environmental Art?


The surreal, though-provoking artworks like a whole wheatfield kindles some questions regarding our existence on this planet, embracing the piece of land that symbolizes food and earth that connects us all. With the rising awareness towards the environment, the significance of environmental art will grow, no wonder! This art form has a strong message to serve, a rare potential to shape public discourse, and appeal to our sensibilities to implement changes caused by the insensitivity towards our habitat.


Environmental art urges the viewers to see the world in a different perspective, where everybody adores and acknowledges the warmth of mother earth, the human impact on nature and the call for change. It throws open a window of creativity, inspiring dialogues, raising hope for a better future. It is the uniqueness of this art form that connects us to a shared universe of sustainability and a constant striving for a greener future, ensuring nature remains a shared canvas for generations to come.


Margaret Mead’s words best sum up the cause for this conceptual land art:


“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”


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