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CCHU 9023
SHAPING
THE LANDSCAPE A Quest for Harmony between
Nature and the City |
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boulders
The site offers a particularly large diversity of landscapes. One of them is the granite boulders that define the east coast of the former quarry. These boulders reveal the true nature of the site and form what should be the beach. Their forms vary from one another but they almost all tend to connect the remaining natural slope of the hill with the water. Due to the thin amount of soil that characterize Hong Kong mountains and the back-and-forth of the tides, their appear naked, no vegetation is able to grow on them and they are often above the water level.
Symbolically, those boulders represent sculpture. In a similar way of a prehistoric monument, they make us remember our lightness and fragility in a rough world. The human relationship to such monoliths is unbalance. Yet, our greater desire is to control them, to possess their fascinating properties and to symbolically master their strength.
Conceptually, boulders symbolize eternity, mass and granite even more specifically resistance to time since is a really hard stone. Through history, monoliths had a religious meaning, and their implantation on a site was often link to where or what they pointed at in the sky. Several prehistoric monuments to honour celestial events were built around the world (Stonehenge).
Artistically, boulders have been used in several ways. Lifted, painted, engraved, wrapped, broken or chopped artists expressed often their relationship to the specific properties of boulders. Andy Goldsworthy would make them stand out as an artificial object using natural elements whereas Richard Harris would elevate them as showcased art pieces. Their incredible masses tempted artist Michael Grab to play with gravity and find a balanced way to place them.
Articial Nature
The concept behind our art piece is to reflect on the history of Lei Yue Mun village and raise awareness about the degrading environment. Our art piece tries to replicate the mass and colour of boulders reflecting Lei Yue Mun’s past quarry.
By remoulding the plastic bottles which are already part of the landscape into a land art piece, we are attempting to draw attention to environmental problems that the village is facing today.
By using fish nets reminded that Lei Yue Mun is a fishermen village so their income mostly relied on fishing. Also, as the colour of boulders are sandy, we decided to put some sand into the external bottles that were placed outside the frame.
We placed the art piece next to the boulders to blend into the landscape. We took pictures of the boulder in different sceneries, for example closer to the seashore line or next to other boulders.
