Land Art & Sculpture by David Allen
Process:
This is where it all happens. Every single aspect about my work revolves around the process of figuring out the true and underlying physical properties of each different medium. From the hardness and permanence of Stone, to the whimsical and fleeting nature of delicate Ferns, no medium is off limits.
It is only through this process of handling and working with various materials, that I am able to figure out what kinds of form and shape it wants to become. My preconceived thoughts and ideas about what I have thought about creating, are often immediately discarded when I begin to handle whatever new medium I am working with. This is often the 'golden moment' in my mind, when I am able to leave everything else behind and focus only on what I have at my immediate disposal. This moment can sometimes become a creative landslide of ideas as the medium begins speaking back to me, telling me what it might become. There are also plenty of moments when things are not so obvious, and no matter what I do, I cannot find the compliance that I am after. These moments are just as important, as I have learned through the years, that creative success does not come all at once, but when you trust in this process, you will eventually find the key to Natures secrets.
Every Artist has their own style or technique that makes them unique. Technique is nothing but a reflection of one's life experience and knowledge, instituted into the current moment of creation. For myself, it is the combination of many years of spent in the carpentry field, a world filled with power tools and incremental measuring, and my personal time spent in nature, working mostly with my hands, that come together to create sculpture that reflects both of these skills.
One of my 'rules' when working in Nature is not to import/export any medium. I only use what I have readily available in front of me. The point of these installations is to create Art in the environment where it exists, doing otherwise just does not work. On occasion, I use nothing but my hands to create, but more often than not, I institute the use of tools and forms to create the types of shapes I am after. There is still quite a lot of 'eyeballing' to this process as a tape measure is not one of my commonly used tools.
Permanent sculpture aside, there are never any fasteners or adhesives used in any of my natural installations, this certainly would not fit into the ideology behind this work. As a result, many pieces last for just days, or maybe weeks, but all, are eventually reclaimed by the Earth.