For Christmas I treated myself to two new books on the sculpture of Andy Goldsworthy. Then I saw Manufactured Landscapes a documentary on the photographs of Edward Burtynsky. Much of Goldsworthy's sculpture is fleeting, made with natural materials which melt, decay or are washed away with the incoming tides. But one of my new books, The Andy Goldsworthy Project, is on his permanent work. Through out his career Goldsworthy has been a meticulous photographer, carefully documenting the purposeful interactions of one man (and his team of workers) with and on nature. He records the evolution over time – the impact his pieces have on the land or the impact nature has on his pieces. Images of his work are in the Other Artist album.
Edward Burtynsky's photographs record the collective impact of humankind on the environment as we extract and use natures resources to manufacture the consumer goods of a modern society. Burtynsky's photographs reminds me that even degradation and pollution seen through an artist's eye can be incredibly beautiful. But his work also stuns me by revealing the shear magnitude of the scale and change we are having on the world. One of Burtnysky's pictorial studies is on the multi-decade, Three Gorges Dam project in China. For some of the workers it was simply a job, but others glowed with pride for being part of something so monumental, bringing progress in the form of power generation, transportation and floodcontrol. A good website to see Burtnysky's work is http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/. But I have added a few pictures to whet your appetite.
As a community college dean, I am privileged to be part of making a long dreamed for small branch campus a reality. I was there when local tribal members gathered Sitka Spruce roots for baskets, before the trees were felled and the land cleared. I watched as trucks haul away a ridge of rock slowly but surely, day after day. The structural beams of the building are finally peeking over the hill. Half of the ten acre site will be untouched but the other half will be forever altered, in spite of the solar panels on the roof and the carefully engineered system of bioswales and filtering ponds designed to manage runoff before returning it to the neighboring wetlands.
Like the Chinese workers I swell with pride and excitement every time I am on site, because I knows how needed the new facility is for our isolated, rural county. Like Goldsworthy, I have enjoyed the design process and seeing the project evolve. But Burtynsky reminds me that like most people, I have a hand in the steady transformation of our planet.
Construction workers tease me about my "magic tree", the one remaining Sitka Spruce circled by barricade netting, to remind everyone to keep it safe. When I look at it, I remember the beautiful spring day when we gathered roots for basket making, how the land looked and smelled before we began carving it up to build a college. Sometimes I find myself making the Spruce a promise – that once we are done building we will re-plant with natives so it won't be solitary forever. I promise it that we will use the surrounding wetlands wisely to teach watershed management. And I share my dream that by setting the college at the edge of town, in the midst of a forest with a distant view of the ocean, our students will reconnect to the land, learn, and be inspired.
