Sculpting the Earth eye-catching and soothing

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Title: Sculpting the Earth
Author: Strijdom van der Merwe
Publisher: Protea
ISBN: 9781869194857
Price: R250.00

Click here to buy a copy from Kalahari.net.

Strijdom van der Merwe is often found with the following words tailoring his lips: “The ground is the beginning and the end of existence, whether in terms of canvas, clay or the fabric of the mind (...).” His new book, Sculpting the Earth reflects on his continued affiliation with the depth of these words over the past nine years of his meditative land art interventions both locally and internationally.

Especially in light of his recent involvement with COP 17, the United Nations conference on climate change held in Durban at the end of last year (2011), Van der Merwe proffers a consistent message held between the minimalist pages of his new publication. This message can be fittingly conveyed by William Shakespeare’s contemplation on nature: “[A]nd this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.” 

In the form of this book the fleeting nature of Van der Merwe’s artistic meanderings are tamed into aesthetic photographs that are presented to the viewer. Between the pages he documents how to live in synergy with nature, how to have respect for it and how to have a presence in and an effect on it. Most importantly, he documents how to flow with nature’s ebbs and tides in a non-domineering manner. This is particularly relevant to contemporary discourses surrounding climate change as we sit at its precipice.

It could be argued that in Sculpting the Earth Van der Merwe offers us accessible visual aids to the endless raw and inaccessible data about climate change that is often hard to interpret, if not just easier to outright ignore. As the famous artist Marc Chagall once said, “[T]he habit of ignoring Nature is deeply implanted in our times.” These artworks become valuable resources to launch debate and discourse surrounding climate change in a universally accessible and engaging manner.

As a personality in the South African and international art scene Van der Merwe sends us a message containing a lingering ideal of hope: his hope is that we realise our place in nature as a being presence. Van der Merwe reminds us that we are only tourists on Planet Earth and need to reconsider our presence in nature. As he explains in a recent interview at the Design Indaba, creativity plays an invaluable role in making these lessons accessible to people. We have to learn to become ecological again.

Unfortunately, in Sculpting the Earth there is no clear connection between the potential and valuable discourse Van der Merwe’s works offer and the minimistically written approach of the publication. While Van der Merwe’s book is overall very eye-catching and soothing to page through, it leaves a vain want for more information than is allowed. The artist has an ability to contribute significant tools and ideas to contemporary discourse as mentioned above, and yet the book seems to focus, rather, on the beauty and simplicity of the documentary photographs of each land-art piece. In this regard, some strong and beautiful notions are not illuminated for the viewer without further research.

The artist’s conceptual mind, albeit encapsulated by the love of simplicity, has the ability to be as fascinating as the works themselves. Part of the interest would come from knowing the artist’s thoughts behind the images and the connections these make to his context, or how he regards them as having a voice. As such these impressions or interventions are perhaps most captivating for what they do not show: the individual who created them.

In conclusion, while it is a pity not to read a written connection to the potential environmental discourses the artist can raise, Sculpting the Earth is a book in which one can indulge in the simplicity on each page and enjoy Van der Merwe’s soulful search for the tools and the existence of these moments. As EE  Cummings says, “the world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.”

 

 

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