Land Art Project and Presentation

Land Art Project, Admiral's Park, Chelmsford UK

Inspired land art project with artistic influences from chosen artist Nancy Holt. An important woman to the Land Art movement in the 1960's, Nancy Holt's work is highly regarded and influential to contemporary artists working in the field. Her most famous works can be found in the US and often centered around astronomical events such as eclipses, equinox and solstices. I chose Nancy Holt because I wanted to focus on women in the arts, specifically Land Art where there are few well recognized artists practicing other than Maya Lin. Her work focusing on the summer solstice inspired my design for Admiral's Park.

For my design, I mapped the visible planets over Admiral's park for June 21st, 2010 and transcribed the celestial pattern to an earthworks project where the planets will be represented by mounds of earth covered in grass circling around the largest mound, 5 meters high, representing the sun. The heliocentric design was mapped with the idea of the space/park becoming a gathering place where celebrations for the solstice can be held directly on the "planets" and the "sun" with a view of the sunrise and the sunset on the longest day of the year.