Artist28: Ackroyd & Harvey

 

I tried to make a concise, well written introduction to Ackroyd and Harvey, but the biography from their site does a much better job than I could:

Sculpture, photography, architecture, and biology are some of the disciplines that intersect in Ackroyd & Harvey’s work, revealing an intrinsic bias towards process and event and often reflecting urban political ecologies by highlighting the temporal nature of processes of growth and decay in sites of architectural interest as well as contemporary art galleries and museums worldwide.

The artist duo, like Andy Goldsworthy (one of my previous blog artists), do much of their work sculpting nature. They are, in particular, known for their massive grass sculptures and pictures. They 'grow' their pieces, specifically controlling what color and shade of grass grows in a particular spot, using the grass like pixels. They control the brightness and amount of light hitting each spot, creating the different values. Example image from Testament pictured left.

They also coat different buildings and spaces in grass, surrounding the audience in their work. Examples below:





I'm starting to like the idea of installations that surround the viewer, allowing for greater immersion into the piece. It's one thing to see an image on a wall...it's another to be physically 'within' an image.