Ephemeral Installations

Suzy Gablik asks, “are we forever locked into the inevitability of a world view based on materialism – and with it, a certain kind of art fixated in the notion of saleable objects? Or…can art actually help us to revision ourselves and our way of living on this earth?” Many artists concerned with the environment have abandoned the notion of creating permanent objects in favour of ephemeral gestures that suggest new possibilities, attitudes and relationships.

In the 1960's Ana Mendieta created ephemeral “Earth/body figure” pieces in which she inscribed her body into the landscape in various ways – carved into earth, shaped with rocks, traced in fire or flowers. The Guggenheim Museum has an online Arts Curriculum which includes a lesson on Ana Mendieta, http://www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculum/lessons/movpics_mendieta.php

Image from Diana Thompson's Gesture

Momentary installations made between the tides

on the beaches of Vancouver, Victoria, and Saltspring Island.

April to October 2003

"Gesture was made on public beaches where the artwork could be seen as it was being created - and for a few hours afterwards (until the tide came up and washed it away). It was important that the work be seen on site and that I was able to speak with those who were interested in the work. Much ephemeral environmental or site-specific art is only experienced third-hand, through photographs - which lack the immediacy and impact of the real thing." http://www.dianathompson.net/Gesture/g1.html

See Nicole Dextras