Presenter: Sophie Stephens, School of the Arts, Art and Design
Authors: Sophie Stephens
Faculty Advisor: Charlotte Poulton, School of the Arts, Art and Design
Institution: Utah Valley University
This presentation seeks to illuminate the pioneering efforts of female land artists in the 1960s and 70s. It outlines a female-led trend in more progressive and environmentally ethical approaches towards land art in contrast to male contemporaries. An examination of the art and writings of Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, for example, reveals a correlation between objectification of female bodies and the earth in their aggressive methods. Rather than see the earth as a stakeholder, early male land artists merely used it like a canvas, devaluing ecological well-being. I argue that early female artists like Nancy Holt, Agnes Denes, and Ana Mendieta changed the narrative to one that marries environmentalism, anti-colonialism, and aesthetic value in a new appreciation of the earth. Conceptual, spiritual, and deeply tied to personal and human identity, land art by these females values not only aesthetic or conceptual quality, but also environmental wellness. The earth becomes a collaborator not a canvas in the process. Female land artists, therefore, must be credited and then explored in a different, perhaps more revolutionary category than their male contemporaries.