Environmental Sculpture - Sculpture Created For An Environment

Sculpture Created For An Environment

A second sense of the term "environmental sculpture", with a somewhat different emphasis, is sculpture created for a particular set of surroundings. Thus, contemporary sculptor Beth Galston writes: "An environmental sculptor plans a piece from the very beginning in relationship to its surroundings. The site is a catalyst, becoming part of the creative process." This is quite different from a Nevelson sculpture, which can usually be moved from place to place, like a conventional sculpture, without losing its meaning and effectiveness.

Nevertheless, even by Galston's definition, an environmental sculpture is not merely site-specific art. After all, one could argue that many a conventional, figurative, marble monument was created for a specific site. This does not make it "environmental sculpture". Galston stresses that environmental sculpture entails the idea that the piece also functions to alter or permeate the existing environment or even to create a new environment in which the viewer is invited to participate: "The finished sculpture and site become one integrated unit, working together to create a unified mood or atmosphere," she writes. Many of the large, site-specific, minimalist sculptures of Richard Serra also qualify as environmental sculpture, in both senses described here. Much of what is called "land art" or "earth art" could also be termed environmental sculpture under this definition. Andrew Rogers and Alan Sonfist (which see) are among notable current practitioners of land art. Since 1983 German artist Eberhard Bosslet makes interventions on ruins, so-called "Re/formations and side effects"; he refers to the conditions of industrial and residential buildings by white painted lines or black painted color fields.