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Field Rotation – by Mary Miss

1981

Earth, wood, steel, water

Commissioned by the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, GSU Foundation, with
support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Collection of the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park [1981].

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Field Rotation

Field Rotation is an example of Land Art [or Environmental Art] so large, that it can be fully appreciated only by aerial view.
Another example of such huge Land Art in the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, is Bodark Arc by Martin Puryear.

 

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Field Rotation is near the car park. What at once catches attention is the rows of embedded wooden poles, 125 of them – like ranks of menhirs – radiating from a grassy mound. The posts have been cut to achieve a perfectly level plane that contrasts with the subtle contouring of the land in which they sit; they are four feet tall at one end, and sixteen feet tall at the other. The difference in height reveals the sloping topography of the field that would otherwise be barely noticeable.

The posts draw towards the center of the mound. Reaching there, one encounters a surprise – an irregularly shaped sunken courtyard, with ladders to descend. The sunken garden is a crisp opposite to the outside work. Two steel ladders on the north and south walls takes to the sunken garden, which has gravel floor, wooden walkways, water pools and metal towers. The courtyard embedded in the mound, whether viewed from above or occupied below, juxtaposes nature and artifice – at once physically integrates them into the land. The artist explains..” The experiences available by moving through the structure and its surroundings are more important than what the structure is in itself.”

Field Rotation has some historical references. The towers in the sunken garden reminds of the cliff dwelling Native American Indians pueblo architecture. The mound form suggests a Native American presence, this time the mound building peoples of Cahokia in southern Illinois. The perimeter outline of the retreat is based on 18th century military European fortification plans.

 

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Mary Miss
American. Born in New York City, New York in 1944.

Mary Miss she spent her youth moving every year while living primarily in the western United States. She studied art and received a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1966. She received an MFA from the Rhinehart School of Sculpture of Maryland Institute College of Art in 1968. She has taught at Hunter College and Pratt Institute and has been awarded a CAPS Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and a National Endowment on the Arts Fellowship in 1974. She has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States.

Mary Miss is a pioneer in environmental art and site-specific art. She was also a leading sculptor during the feminist movement of the 1970s. Her work incorporates elements of landscape into sculptural composition and encouraging audience engagement within public space. She creates work that emphasize a site’s history, ecology or aspects of the environment that have gone unnoticed. Her work crosses boundaries between landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, and sculpture. She has been particularly interested in redefining the role of the artist in the public domain.

Since 2008 Miss has worked on the development of the “City as Living Laboratory: Sustainability Made Tangible through the Arts”, a non- profit organization which nurtures teams of artists and scientists working with neighborhood communities to bring about greater environmental awareness and envision more livable cities of sustenance.

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RELATED LINKS

Official Website: Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park .. .. click here..

My Posts on Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park.. click here
NMSP: Collection Photo Gallery..click here..
NMSP: Collection Blogs.. click here
NMSP: Temporary Exhibitions.. click here..
NMSP: Articles..click here..
NMSP: Fundraising..click here..

Home: Public Art in Chicago.. click here..

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