LVIS3031

As urban unrest accelerated alongside domestic public policy change, civil rights, and economic transformation, American artists began developing a movement in the 1960s and 70s now known as Land Art. This turning towards geology and nature, though not without a certain social conservatism and escapism, also provided women and artists of color spaces of critique through the planning and construction of outdoor memorials, mounds, and living fields. This class situates Land Art within contemporary narratives of post-war art history in order to consider how "land," "place," and "site" have become part of art's literal and metaphorical "expanded field." The work of artists Beverly Buchanan, Michelle Stuart, Nancy Holt, Agnes Denes, and Ana Mendieta will be paired with close readings of texts by Lucy Lippard, Robert Smithson, Miwon Kwon, Jane Jacobs, and legal theorist Cheryl Harris in order to look at the tensions inherent in the expanding of such fields. Students will draft their own instructional documents or "scores" for producing an earthwork, thereby putting some of Land Art's tensions into play. This course also fulfills a studio or practice-based visual arts course requirement for Visual Studies students. This course counts toward the Gender Studies minor.