Artist of the day: Artist of the day, June 8-9: Andrew Rogers, an Australian contemporary sculptor (Land art) (#714)

Saturday, June 8, 2019

Artist of the day, June 8-9: Andrew Rogers, an Australian contemporary sculptor (Land art) (#714)

Andrew Rogers is a contemporary sculptor born in Australia whose works may be found in many plazas and buildings around the world. He is a leading contemporary artist. Rogers is the creator of the world's largest contemporary land art undertaking. Titled "Rhythms of Life," the project commenced in 1998 and at present comprises 51 massive stone structures across 16 countries on seven continents and has involved over 7,500 people

Rhythms of Life land art project
Of particular note is a site in Cappadocia, Turkey, where between 2007 and 2011 Rogers completed the "Time and Space" geoglyph park. The thirteen structures comprise more than 10,500 tons of stone and, in total, the walls measure approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) in length. The structures that lie furthest apart are separated by a distance of 1.5 miles (2.4 km).

Rogers' "Rhythms of Life" project is the largest contemporary land-art undertaking in the world, forming a chain of 51 stone sculptures, or geoglyphs, around the globe: 18 sites in disparate exotic locations from below sea level and up to altitudes of 4,300 metres (14,100 ft). Up to three geoglyphs, ranging in size up to 40,000 square metres (430,000 sq ft), are located at each site. To date the project has involved over 7,500 people in 16 countries across seven continents.

Monumental geoglyphs have been constructed since 1998, forming a chain of 51 drawings on the earth visible from space. Outside Melbourne, in Geelong, a "Rhythms of Life" site was commissioned in association with the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In China the "Rhythms of Life" walls stretch 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi).

In the book "Andrew Rogers Geoglyphs Rhythms of Life", author Eleanor Heartney, New York-based, award-winning art writer and independent art critic, describes Rogers' land art undertaking:
"The geographic and historic sweep of the works constructed as part of the Rhythms of Life project is unprecedented in its scale and ambition. Taken together, the geoglyphs have been erected in every kind of climate, and have responded to geographical environments as distinct as Nepal’s Himalayan Mountains, China’s Gobi Desert, the volcanic mountains of Iceland and the harsh Israeli desert."

Satellite Imagery
Rogers' works are of such proportions that they have been captured in photographs taken by satellite from distances between 440 and 770 km (273–480 miles) above the earth's surface. They can be easily observed in Google Earth’s satellite imagery which has been used to create a tour of the 'Rhythms of Life' Land art project

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