"ENVIRONMENTAL ART"

I'm in a quandary because there's a type of sculpture that I like and it has no name. I call it "environmental art," but that's a purely personal name that would create confusion if I used it in conversation. There's already a formal environmental art, and it doesn't look anything like this.

Anyway, the example above (or rather the parts of it that I like: I don't like the whole thing) should help to define it. It looks like a combination of Jim Flora and Disney's "Night on Bald Mountain." It interrupts the space it's in, so I call it environmental. Wouldn't it be great to have a living room with demons like these flying all around the ceiling?

For me environmental art always looks three dimensional, even if it's not. I like the picture above which seems like cut out plates of different sorts, but which is actually all on a flat plane.

I even think of Miro (above) as an environmental artist, because his flat paintings look like they'd make terrific mobiles....if you could afford the time and expense of constructing them.

Calder's mobiles (above) capture some of the Miro feel, but with a lot fewer shapes. As a consequence you can buy cheap knock-offs for your home. Poor Caulder. The knock-offs seldom capture the energy of the original.

I like the way Caulder uses shadows on the wall to complete the design.

Miro influenced a lot of sculptors to make environmental designs like the one on the right, above. I love wire sculptures that seem to take the shape of tendrils on a bean plant. I used to have a real bean plant right outside my shower window and every summer I'd be treated to beautiful evolving spirals of plant dendrite.

 The problem with wire sculpture (above) is that it crushes easily if not handled right. I used to have a home-made one in my living room window. It got mangled again and again, but it was okay because the distortion usually turned out to be interesting. I One day the distortions just stopped looking good, and I had to throw it out.

 Here's another style that qualifies as environmental art for me: Red Grooms' "Book Store." It's life size and really captures the feeling of a used book store. I imagine that only museums buy this kind of thing.

For me, totem poles of all kinds are environmental art.

Of course the Canadian Indians make the best totems, but the Polynesians were no slouches. Banana plants (above) just don't look right without tikis.

That's all for now...no, wait! It's Memorial Day, and there's one more important subject to cover (below).......