Nov. 9, 2014
Art 309
Essay 3
Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta both use the land as nature’s art. Both of the artist use color and space to highlight nature’s natural true beauty with in the land. The artists romanticize the beauty with in the earth, while letting viewers see how humans can co-exist with nature.
Spiral Jetty, 1970 by Robert Smithson lets the viewers see the beauty of nature through the space with in the frame. Both artist uses space differently. In the Spiral Jetty, the spiral is surround by a body of ocean and land, and the viewers see the nature beauty of the land and ocean. Ana Mendieta’s Tree of Life, the artist shows us less space. All we see what appears to be is a woman standing in front of a tree. The use of space in this image is about a normal eyesight view. Which narrows the frame, and may let viewers think the woman is either a tree lover, or is one with nature. However, the color is another part that separates theses images.
Ana’s photograph has much darker toned colors, which lets viewers know this is image has most likely been taking in the forest. The color on the woman body matches the color of the tree. So, maybe the viewers can identified that the woman and the tree are equally the same. By looking at the image viewers can tell that the image has been staged, which mean the artist is trying to tell us something. Ana told someone to stand in front of the tree to capture the attention of the viewers to let them know how important nature is. The staging created dialog and lines to tell the viewers something. For instance, the tree bark vertical lines behind the woman points to her to draw viewers attention to her. Also, with the hands of the woman pointed in the air is a sign of her giving up, which draws the eyes in. It’s saying that the tree is just as much alive as the woman, and people wouldn’t kill her, so treat the tree the same way as human life.
In Robert’s photograph, there are many different colors