Australian artist Andrew Rogers announces the first exhibition devoted to the entire Rhythms of Life project, the world’s largest contemporary land art undertaking. From May 7-30, the non-profit arts organization 18th Street Arts Center (www.18thstreet.org) will present Andrew Rogers: Time and Space, a selection of 68 large-scale photographs of Rogers’s ground-breaking outdoor art project.
The exhibition will showcase aerial and satellite photographs of 47 sculptures created over a period of 13 years, making it the first time these images will be publicly displayed together. Also on view will be a looped, 40-minute film that documents the artist’s extraordinary process. Rogers has spent the last 13 years engaging over 6,700 people in 13 countries on seven continents to create stone sculptures in deserts, fjords, gorges, national parks and on mountainous slopes. He often works for months on end, engaging hundreds of local workers and even a thousand Maasai Warriors to help him erect his visionary installations. By building structures with local significance, and providing sustaining support to maintain the mammoth artworks, Rogers engages the communities where his works are created. Following each project’s completion, Rogers photographs the work himself either from a hot air balloon, a helicopter 500 feet aloft or from a satellite stationed 480 miles above ground.
About Rhythms of Life Rhythms of Life forms a chain of 47 stone sculptures, or geoglyphs, positioned at 13 sites around the world. Constructed of earth and rocks, and following the contours of the natural landscape, Rogers’s land sculptures each measure up to 430,000 square feet in area, and range in height from three to 14 feet. Designed in conjunction with select architects and a team of local workers, the structures refer to the physical building blocks of history and civilization, while addressing the cycle of life and the interconnection of humanity throughout time and space. Rogers began the project in Israel’s Arava Desert in 1998 and has since created artworks on seven continents: in Israel, Chile, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Iceland, China, India, Turkey, Nepal, Slovakia, the United States, Kenya and Antarctica. At each site, the project is initiated with a celebration that draws on local customs, such as traditional dancing and singing in China, sharing of wine and coca in Chile or the sacrifice of a llama in Bolivia. To create the land sculptures, Rogers and his crews battle the elements, including freezing snow in Iceland, 110-degree heat in an Israeli desert and altitudes of 14,000 feet in the Bolivian Andes. The project in Turkey is the world’s largest contemporary land art park. It includes twelve massive stone structures, most built by hand. The lines of these structures measure approximately 4 miles in length and are comprised of over 10,500 tons of stone. The park spans a mountain valley over a distance of 1.5miles.
About the Artist Andrew Rogers is one of Australia’s most renowned sculptors. His works are included in private and public collections throughout in Australia, South East Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. Rhythms of Life is his most ambitious project to date. For more information, see www.andrewrogers.com
Image: Andrew Rogers
18th Street Arts Center Info: 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404 T: (310) 453-3711 www.18thstreet.org