ARTT 054C. Sculpture and the Environment

Sculpture and the Enviornment is a studio-based inquiry into conetmporary sculpture and three-dimensional art practices that engage in enviornmental issues. Through a series of hands-on creative projects, we will consider how visual art can be a tool for envisioning a more sustainable and enviornmentally just future. Each major studio project will focus on a specific strategy for engaging enviornmental content in three-dimensional artworks. We will often respond to a particular landscape, considering how an artwork reolates both formally and conceptually to the site. We will develop an ethos of working with primarily salvaged, recycled, and reclaimed materials. Within those constraints, you will have a great deal of agency to choose what materials you would like to work with for each project. You will also be invited to bring knowledge from other EVS courses/relevant disciplines to bear on your creative work. To build context for our work, we will look at a variety of individuals and groups across time, speace, and cultures who have made land and place-based artwork. Studio projects will be informed by visiting artists, slide presentations, readings and films/videos. Creative practices that foreground community, land, agriculture and ecology will be emphasized. This course will collaborate with RAIR (Recycled Artists in Residence) in Philadelphia, Swarthmore’s Office and Sustainability, and the Scott Arboretum. We will use the MakerSpace in Whittier Hall as a resource for prototyping and fabrication. You will receive in-depth, frequent feedback on your work through full class critiques, small group discussions, and 1:1 meetings.
Prerequisite: Student required to have completed an introductory Sculpture or 3D Design course.
ARTT 005A or ARTT 002A
Arts and Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for ENVS.
Spring 2026. Joyner.
Catalog chapter: Art
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/art

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