- Time Landscape, Manhattan, 1965-current
“Public monuments traditionally have celebrated events in human history – acts or humans of importance to the whole community. In the twentieth century, as we perceive our dependence on nature, the concept of community expands to include nonhuman elements, and civic monuments should honor and celebrate life and acts of another part of the community: natural phenomena. Within the city, public monuments should recapture and revitalize the history of the environment natural to that location.” – Alan Sonfist
Time Landscape, Manhattan, 1978
“To review the public sculptures of Alan Sonfist since the 1960s is to witness the re-emergence of the socially aware artist. Inherent in each of his artworks are fundamental redefinitions of what sculpture is, who the artist is, and how art should function for its public.” – Jonathan Carpenter, 1983, P.142
Source: Jonathan Carpenter, “Alan Sonfist’s Public Sculptures” in Alan Sonfist (ed.), ART IN THE LAND – a Critical Anthology of environmental Art, 1983
Michelle Gearon
all art is quite useful 
It’s really interesting to see the way Sonfist’s work seems to fit within a strain of environmentally conscious art interventions that I have been investigating for this blog. One can draw really interesting parallels and comparisons between this work, Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield and the earlier interventionist works by Richard Long. I think this work in particular takes on a real symbolic power due to its location (Manhattan), the sheer contrast, the poignant juxtaposition of densely populated, highly sought after real estate and a tranquil green-space. The natural or ‘authentic’ environment is given priority over the urban one, which is rare. Denes exploited this same kind of contrast to extend the political meaning in her work. What is really wonderful is that Time Landscape is ongoing. In this case, it seems Sonfist has used art’s cultural cache to secure a lasting environmental intervention. I think it also comes from a place similar to that of Richard Long in that Sonfist’s utilisation of flora and ecology is about respect, human experience and interaction in a positive way. Although it is also an inversion of Long’s artistic practice, the ‘natural environment’ intervenes in ‘our space’, rather than the other way around.
Jane Diserio
There is a really nice summary of Time Landscape available on the NYC parks website. Draws attention to the way the work traverses the line between art and activism.
http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/historical-signs/listings?id=6407
Thanks for the link Jane, really helpful summary.
I like your point about how Sonfist’s use of “art’s cultural cache to secure a lasting environmental intervention” enabled his work to have a more lasting influence. Janet Laurence has made a similar point about her own work, stating that “art can bring into public view some confronting environmental issues that without the imprimatur of it being a creative work wouldn’t ordinarily be presented, because so often scientific information is not permitted public access.” Her comment highlights the advantage art can have over other forms of activism. Performing ecological actions under the label of ‘art’ can often allow activism to reach wider audiences on a deeper level.
Michelle