The Ethics of Earth Art by Amanda Boetskes

The Ethics of Earth Art by Amanda Boetzkes.

In her book The Ethics of Earth Art, Amanda Boetskes, an assistant professor of contemporary art and theory at the University of Alberta, explores the development of the earth art movement since the 1960s and the diverse range of artists who have been involved. Venturing into the work of artists such as Robert Smithson, Andy Goldsworthy, Ana Mendieta, James Turrell and Ichi Ikeda, Boetzkes argues that while these artists’ works are quite different, from land-based sculptures to media in contemporary art, they are connected by the way they highlight the earth as a “domain of ethical concern.” In chapter one, the book examines the history of earth art and subsequent chapters are spent analysing works in terms of their ecological trajectory, including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and pieces by Chris Drury and Olafur Eliasson, which Boetzkes argues express a withdrawal from the earth despite their natural excess. In the final chapter, Boetzkes addresses artworks that feature the contact between the artist’s body and the earth, and environmental crisis as a central concern in contemporary art but also as a means of continuing the earth art movement.

Amanda Boetzkes, University of Minnesota Press, Paperback, 2010, 240 pp, RRP $44.95.