[The Log]somewhere in the Echigo-Tsumari wilderness
The struggle between man-made constructs and nature is always one of balance. Too much nature renders the impossibility of habitation and use, while overly artificial compromises our mother nature. The ‘Big Land Art’ which is the title theme of the Triennale defines the power of the landscape and the art it contains within. Our proposal is to create a piece of land art that mediates between the two, while at the same time accentuates both.
A frame that evokes the sense of the traditional dwelling is made completely invisible through the mirror surface and the wall-less enclosure, containing all the nature happening around the art piece. Butterflies, animals, human beings included are allowed to freely move through the work, evoking the sense of situating within nature with wind, sunlight, rain, and snow passing through it in different seasons. The compromised wood log diagonally placed within the work measures and calibrates the severity of the weather in different times. All living beings, not only you and I as human beings, enjoy the nature offered by the surrounding landscapes, but also the birds or butterflies. We all participate in the interactions regardless of our species and are without the boundary of language. At some point, maybe, we can decipher the code behind the humming sounds of the birds’ songs.