Tomorrow is our dirt/earth party at the Academy of Sciences, so we figured it’s about time for a little update of the Dirt Chronicles. This time we’re exploring the magical powers of dirt around the world! While clay has been used as medicine by indigenous peoples for ages, the first recorded use is traced back...
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when i was in morocco two years ago, i was amazed by the ancient beauty and simplicity of many homes and casbahs made completely out of dirt. the walls, which were often more than a foot thick, kept the heat out in the blazing summers, but also maintained warmth in wintertime. when gretchen sent...
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richard long‘s work revolutionized the sculpture world in the 60s and 70s with one single radical idea- taking long walks in nature. rearranging stones, walking repeatedly over his paths, and trampling down grass, long exchanges with his surroundings in a poetically minimal way. utilizing lines and circles, he subtly integrates symbols of his presence...
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eiko & koma are a japanese duo that have been choreographing and performing together since the 1970s, pushing the limits of movement, dance, and performance. this past november, the pair debuted a month-long installation of their most recent endeavor, naked, as part of a residency at the walker art center in minneapolis and a...
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thanks to a tip from cp, we can add japanese artist, koichi kurita, to our list of dirt-lovers. koichi drives around japan collecting soil samples from various areas, spending the night in his pickup truck. after drying and sifting the dirt, he arranges it lovingly into “libraries” encased in glass tubes or installs precisely-arranged-piles...
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the shaft of babel, 2003. hans schabus dug a 15 foot hole in his studio in vienna, displacing the dirt and bagging it in his studio. his work often deals with size on a large scale, making us aware of and challenging our conceptions of space and our relation to it. images via ggeeoorrgg and...
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we can’t really talk about dirt and art without mentioning the land artists of the 60s and 70s. walter de maria is often put into this category, utilizing the great expanses of land in the west for his infamous work, the lightning field (which we visited this summer, i’ll write more about that soon)....
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dirt cheap, dirt poor, dirty rotten scoundrel– that stuff under our feet certainly has a bad reputation! since i watched this amazing documentary, dirt! the movie, i’ve been really into looking up information about the historical, scientific, and cultural significance of DIRT! dirt in science, dirt in religion, and particularly dirt in art, it’s...
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