Intervened Path
March 2020
Installation
Recycled paper
20m
Exhibition / A Continuation of Autumn, The Johnston Terrace Garden
In a natural environment, have we seriously considered the relationship between human intervention and landscape?
This group show is a collection of site-responsive work displayed in the garden for one day and created by artists on the Art, Space + Nature masters programme at Edinburgh College of Art.
We can see many paths in the garden. There is one wooden path, and the others are dirt trails. This reminds me that these paths are made by human intervention, but people often ignore the changes humans have made to nature. So I rolled these recyclable paper into balls and laid them on this path to emphasize the changes that human activities bring to nature, and I want people to feel this visual impact of the relationship between ego involvement and the landscape.
I spread the rolls of white paper on the path, my original intention is to emphasize this imprint on the landscape, but when I use video to record the visitors walking hard on my work, I have a new impression: For them, my work is actually an unpleasant experience. I didn't tell them whether they can follow my work, so they are also very confused. This is a negative intervention on the road for them as well. Sometimes the intervention is mutual, and the damage we cause to the landscape also indirectly causes trouble for ourselves.
Recycled paper is a kind of artificial material that connected to human and the nature. People use the timber to make paper, and the paper is also a symbol of footprints that human leave.
Videos of intervened Path
When watching the video carefully, we will find that some viewers have left footprints on the paper. It's a pity that I didn't record these footprints on paper. In fact, this is a work that can express human intervention. The soles of people's shoes were covered with mud, and when they stepped on the white paper, the mud footprints were also printed on the paper, which was clear and obtrusive.