The proposal that follows was the result of a careful study of the specific site, as well as the broader Upper Guadalupe River area.
My aim for this Earthwork is to respect but also to accentuate, to celebrate and at once embrace, the innate qualities of this remarkable landscape.
RIVERLAND is a land art project that intends to encourage visitors to experience this landscape through its own prism and, at the same time, to experience the land art physically and mentally through the natural elements surrounding it. The form that RIVERLAND will take is that of an elongated, S-shaped, variable-width spiral. The spiral will comprise two parts that meet in the middle, at the S-shaped spiral’s widest point. Each part will be quarter of a mile long, giving an overall length of half a mile to the complete work. One part of the work will be elevated (the ‘positive’ part) while the other part will be dug into the ground (the ‘negative’ part). The height of the ‘positive’ part will equal the depth of the ‘negative’ part, affording the work its essential symmetry. The second part of the S-shaped spiral will be known as River and will be built (or dug out) on the rocky flood plain to take the form of a trench that is at its deepest at the work’s midpoint (where it meets Earthen at the latter’s largest elevation) before becoming increasingly shallow as it ‘snakes’ toward the Guadalupe river. River will be, on occasion, filled with water.
© Danae Stratou, all rights reserved.
