Field on Fire, 2011
land art, grass, 55 x 220 m
production: Periférne Centrá, Dubravica, Slovakia
photos: Lise Wulff, Andrej Poliak, artist
The work FIELD ON FIRE, dimensions 55 x 220 m, was made in summer 2011 in the village Dubravica in the Slovak Republic as a part of the land art festival Landscape Revisited (organized by an independent association Periférne Centrá) upon invitation of the Mexican curator and artist Carlos Carmonamedina. Starting point for this project were drawings and collages from the blog www.dailydrawingfeed.blogspot.rs/. Looking for the right one that might easily be applied to the offered vast grass area, Branislav Nikolic and the curator Carmonamedina concluded it to be an iconic representation of little fire which, in this way, assumed new almost grotesque proportions. First phase of work carried on this gigantic drawing was photographing of the terrain and its editing in Photoshop, followed by shoving of the spikes into the ground. The spikes had numbers on them as well as flags on key points so that they could be discerned from the opposite hill – the viewpoint. White flags marked the outside contours of the fire and blue flags the inside ones. Then, we adjusted the spikes with numbers so that they would match as much as possible a computer designed painting. This task Nikolic and Carmonamedina did using mobile phones. They had identical maps in their hands and Carlos navigated the artists to move particular number to the right, left, up or down and by how much in order to exactly match the drawing. Then they stretched the rope between the spikes. Next phase was mowing of the meadow, that is, making of the drawing. Grassy area around the little fire was mown in cooperation with the local farmers’ cooperative with enormous tractor-mower, and the corners and the areas not easily approached were mowed manually – with the grass trimmer. As the temperature was 40 degrees that August, the mowed grass dried quickly and turned yellow so that already next day a contrasting picture appeared. It was visible from the already mentioned viewpoint, which gives view over the entire village and the surrounding area. The drawing immediately became attraction for the locals and visitors from surrounding towns who came to see the festival. Many took photos of themselves with the drawing in the background and posted them on social networks.
Here is a short video about Landscape Revisited project.