Ever decreasing circles

Gee, it's been a while since anything much happened around here. Art From Space is on a bit of a go-slow these days, but we'll try check in from time to time if anything interesting crops (no pun) up.

Here's a great bit of linkage we've just been sent from The Boston Globe about STRANGE LAND FORMATIONS in SW Florida (thanks JR).

Image: Empty cul-de-sacs fill an area south of Rotonda West in CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Florida.

Doctoring time

Fans of Dr Who spin-off Torchwood (we've just finished the second series on DVD) will immediately recognise THIS view of central Cardiff, which plays a prominent role in the series. Cardiff, so the story goes, is in the middle of a rift in space and time and the Torchwood hub, where they deal with rift anomalies, is based underneath the Millennium Plaza (pictured). One episode has them rescuing a warehouse-scale alien meatloaf (built by Barney (son of Wystan) Curnow). Jumping into STREETVIEW, you're practically on location, waiting for Captain Jack to pop up out of the pavement.

Speaking of enormous alien structures, we've just discovered THIS DOOZY just a little north in Birmingham, designed by Future Systems, who are also responsible for the Lord's Media Centre, found HERE.

Hopping mad

A facebook tip-off (thanks LV) has led us to a sweet new theory on crop circles. Turns out it's all the work of looney livestock, or at least that's what the men in black would have you believe... But does that explain the proliferation of field formations in particular pockets of the UK? Agrarian substance abuse could certainly explain THIS manifestation. But what of these, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE? Or this complex example, which hasn't been captured by google yet but is apparently located HERE. THIS one in Oregon was clearly made for web browsers, and THIS is just showing off.

Mind the Gap

“[These works] capture western capitalism on the grandest scale; the landscape seen from outer space. The landscape from this perspective is slightly mysterious. Describe circular irrigation to most people and they will immediately recall the kind of crop circles depicted in extraterrestrial movies and conspiracy theories. There is usually a ready explanation to this kind of enigma: in the instance of circular irrigation it is purely the pattern created by irrigation sprinklers which enables these abstract and slightly haphazardly constructed landscapes.

“[Adrian] Jackman has worked from public domain satellite imagery in Google Maps. The quality and amount of visual information available varies considerably in this popular web application, enticing the imagination to postulate on unseen spaces. This is of course a technical constraint of the photograph but one that does not exist in painting. For the painter, this lack of visual information represents an opportunity: to capture the available information and successfully fill in the gaps.

“Gaps have at one time or another invoked imaginative responses in us all. Whether it be cracks in the pavement or the narrow spaces between domestic decking floorboards. In this new series Jackman has witnessed gaps in the landscape, constructing a collection of intriging new compositions that are certain to strike an imaginative chord with his audience.”

Matt Blomely on Adrian Jackman's exhibition Mind the Gap at Lopdell House.

Image: Adrian Jackman, The Agrarians, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 1220 x 1524mm

Circular vibrations

Last year we briefly got curious about whether crop circles exist on google maps but only found those big irrigation machines that are particularly common in places like OKLAHOMA - fields and fields of Mondrian and Mrkusich grids. Now we find there's another kind of earth art, the ominous concentric circles of bombing ranges such as those of Nellis Airforce Base, HERE, HERE and HERE. And of course there are also more mysterious configurations, variously thought to be the work of pranksters, aliens, sound waves, or the Mowing-Devil; two near Sheffield HERE and HERE, and near Parma, Italy HERE (locations sourced from this map).

For an art theoretical consideration of this phenomenon, Emil McAvoy will be presenting a discussion of "the interconnections between crop formations and our current understandings of complex, integrated and nonlinear systems" at this weekend's SCANZ symposium at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

A Slow Start

"Landscape is ultimately going to subsume us all, it's the inevitable destination of all living things. So it is almost an irony that landscape is one of the expected subjects for painters... I describe my works as an unnatural staging of the natural. There is also a contemplation of monumentality, in the sense that I make a lot of very small works but I"m also drawn to making something so big that it is part of the landscape, a sense of scale that is also a mechanics of play. And there's a desire to make something that has a time component... What we have initiated is what I call a permanent work in progress. I will be long dead by the time the work reaches fruition, when the plants are mature enough to flower goldenly and magnificently. So what I think I can justifiably claim is that what we are working on is the slowets art work in New Zealand."

So says John Reynolds, in his book Certain Words Drawn, about his earth works SNOW TUSSOCK, GOLDEN SPANIARD and Cordyline. The first two are part of a larger project employing artists, also including Gavin Hipkins and Jae Hoon Lee, to rejuvenate the heavily mined landscape of Macraes Flat. Cordyline is hidden on Alan Gibbs' private sculpture park at The Farm in Kaipara. There is a fourth earth work by Reynolds, which precedes these but doesn't seem to have been concluded. This was part of a bigger multi-disciplinary project about layering data on the Auckand landscape. The first of a proposed series of planted arrow formations should be growing somewhere around here at UNITEC.

Reynolds' comments on temporality ring true when visiting these works via google. Golden Spaniard is shown at a very early stage with what look like heaped tailings being gathered into a giant koru shape before being sculpted into a ziggurat form. The earth-moving is now completed but there are many years of growing ahead. In anticipation of potential future phases of Art from Space, we will start archiving these map images as they are updated for juxtaposition with later incarnations.

Bearing in mind the wiry motifs Reynolds now has self-propogating around the countryside, it's easy to also look at these two forms as an interesting pair of in-progress drawings HERE and HERE. And just for good measure, here is the inverted ziggurat of the still-functioning WAIHI GOLDMINE.

Image: John Reynolds, The Garden for the Blind, proposed detail of installation in Orakei.

Green Thumbs

I'd be lying if I said I gave even a passing thought to the state of our grounds at home during our time away. So it was without an ounce of guilt that I read a feature on great gardens of the (Western European) world in the August issue of Cathay Pacific's in-flight Discovery magazine on the way home last week.

Most impressive is the 17th century HET LOO gardens in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands established by soon-to-be Scottish and English King, William of Orange, also known as (Bonny?) King Billy (There is a statue of Billy HERE, outside Kensington Palace with a brilliant shadow, and an equestrian statue HERE, in Queen Square, Bristol). Apparently, gardens of this era, also including Versailles, are characterised by their rigid geometry and intricate embroidered designs, imposing and orderly experience of nature. A more freeform approach came about with the optimism of the 18th century leading to the splashy deployment of flowers in STROLLING GARDENS of the 19th century that offered a backdrop for the promenading of the new bourgeoisie. Now we have contemporary gardens such as Alnwick Garden in NORTHUMBERLAND and restored sites, such as the MOORISH GARDENS of the Genaralife in the Alhambra, which have become major tourist destinations.

These intricate, horizontal configuarations seem ideal for viewing from above so it is intriguing to consider, back in the days before airtravel, exactly who they were designed for. Presumably, the privileged viewers were residing up in the castle.

Bringing this horticultural digression back on topic to the business of art (ahem), also featuring in the Discovery article are the Giverny gardens of one Claude Monet. This is where he cultivated fields of colour especially for painting, and later developed a watergarden, inspired by Japanese prints, where he created lily ponds. Bearing in mind this construction and controlling of nature specifically for use as art, I'm tempted to argue for Monet as the forefather of Land Art. Unfortunately, there are no impressionist fields of colour to be found HERE and a quick scout around nearby fields doesn't reveal any haystacks, but I will add these to my list of things to look out for.

Image: Claude Monet - Bassin aux Nympheas Harmonie Rose mug, from cafepress

Energy Fields

Yesterday I received an email at work about the falling storage in New Zealand's hydro lakes and the need to conserve power. You can check the daily status of the lakes here. I thought I'd have a look at the actual lakes...

Here is the CLYDE DAM on the Clutha River, forming Lake Dunstan. Notice the historic MINING SITE downstream towards Alexandra. This was one of several controversial hydro schemes of the era, another being the Manapouri Dam, which was stopped, perhaps partly thanks to a hugely popular protest song by John Hanlon. Check out the frosty water and wafting clouds of the SITE TODAY, which is completely shrouded if you zoom out. The most impressive is LAKE PUKAKI, with its glassy water and long SCULPTED CHUTE that rivals anything being done in the Nevada Desert.

Of particular interest now is THIS DAM, near the town of Horahora. As with many hydro projects, the harnessing of nature is at the expense of other sites that become flooded, washing away local histories. The story of Horahora has now been retold through Brett Graham and Rachael Rakena's 2007 project, Aniwaniwa, which recalls the flooding of the Horahora power station where Graham's grandfather worked. The exhibition catalogue has some great images, including the one above, of the power station's last stand.

So I started looking for other large power-generating land installations. There's a lot of solar activity going on in the Mojave Desert. Solar One and Solar Two make for good MAP VIEWING. There's something intriguing about looking from a satellite at what are essentially mirrors but are absorbing and storing the light that is essential to looking (note to self: re-visit Robert Smithson's writings). Lots of good IRRIGATION CIRCLES just to the east too. Someone has just pointed out to me how much they resemble Graham's Tangaroa sculpture, named after the Maori god of the sea. And there's no escaping the resemblence of HALF-CIRCLE irrigation fields to Gretchen Albrecht's lunette paintings.

The PS10 project in Spain (pictured) has a particularly sculptural look, but unfortunately ISN'T VISIBLE on google maps just yet. This BBC report gives a full rundown on how the tower works and I can't wait to see how it looks from above with the jets of light and surrounding "aura". Also yet to be added to the GOOGLE MAP is Nellis Solar Power Plant, the largest of its kind in North America. Nellis is part of the Nellis Air Force Base on the outskirts of Las Vegas and has all kinds of INTERESTING CONFIGURATIONS of military HARDWARE SITTING AROUND.

Images: Brett Graham and Rachael Rakena, Aniwaniwa (still), 2007; Horahora Power Station being flooded as villagers look on, 1947; PS10 tower power plant, Sanlúcar la Mayor, Spain.

7 Pieces of Pre-modernism

Easter Island

Unfortunately this is the best view currently available on google maps.

Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico

Michael Heizer visitied this ancient Mayan city prior to starting his own "City" project. Again, this is the best view available on google maps. I've heard of government departments and people with privacy issues requesting removal from google maps. I wonder if sites of cultural sensitivity have been given similar treatment as this and Easter Island are conspicuous in their absence, particularly with a dramatic improvement of resolution so close by.

Pyramids, Egypt

That's the Sphinx to the lower right. Not ever having physically been here, I was suprised to see the proximity to an urban environment. Can you imagine having these just up the road from you? Perhaps romantically, I always imagined you'd drive for miles to see these. Of course, these were a part of a civilisation and would have been integrated into a community in some way. Finding these, I'm also struck by how indiscriminate google maps can be. I just plugged 'pyramids' into the search and this is the view I was offered with no further explanation or information, just an image to explore. By zooming out in map-view, one can confirm that this is on the outskirts of Al Qahirah, Egypt, and see exactly where it sits in relation to other borders.

Taj Mahal, India
From this view it is the landscaping rather than the architecture, if they can be separated, that impresses.

Stonehenge, England

Having become accustomed to major landmarks having substantial tourist industries built around them, the first time I drove past this I was surprised to encounter it almost by chance with very little fanfare.

Maungawhau Crater, Auckland, New Zealand

This is primarily a natural landmark but you can also clearly still see traces of the Maori occupation of this site. The natural parabolic qualities of Mt Eden (Maungawhau)'s crater have been exploited in performances by Phil Dadson, but that is another strand of art geography that we will come back to later.

Circular field, Africa

Strongly resembling a crop circle but more likely just a nice, circular piece of mowing. I'm getting a bit off-topic now but the crop circle thing is definitely something we'll return to.