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encyclopedia of stone sculpture

Stone Conversations : Archive 7 : Message 00064

From: Norman Watts <Norman_Watts@zzzzzzz>
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 08:13:42 -0400
Subject: encyclopedia of stone sculpture

On Oct 3, 2004, at 5:46 PM, Bill Marsh wrote:

Quoted text begins.Interesting to see the evolution of the work over the years, from
freestanding pieces to more of an earthwork or landscapish thing.
End of quote.


To my eyes there is a very different evolution going on. It has to do
with an unspoken mindset, which has changed. Its a bit difficult to
explain, but here it is. My grandparents were German, and my father
was raised in Westphalia, Germany, a hilly region extensively forested
with evergreens. I have distinct early memories of looking through old
picture calendars, spanning many years, in which there was a heavy
emphasis on landscape and in particular an emphasis on views of trees,
forests and from hilltops onto the villages below. Also, at least into
the '50s, there still survived an extensive network of well-maintained
trails all over the region, and before people had cars walking was the
way to go, but people also walked a lot for pleasure. There are many
destinations on hilltops (memorials, towers, old castles, scenic views,
and sometimes small restaurants) that were used as destinations for a
long Sunday's walk. There were walking clubs who maintained the trails.
Germans have a long history of holding the forest in some kind of
reverence, there is very beautiful poetry about forests, fairy tales
were set in forests, and there was at least one
communing-with-nature-in-the-nude movement that I've heard of. Much as
changed, but even now forests in Germany are well-kept, characterized
by an attempt to keep them in the face of high population density -tidy
plantations, an attempt at control of urban sprawl, etc.

All this to say that all the sculptures depicted in the early years of
the encyclopedia have the "look" (atmosphere) that the pictures in
those old calendars had. The sculptures are nestled in amongst and
close to trees, they have a mysterious and ancient look about them, and
is if one had come upon something mysterious suddenly in the forest.
Some (all?) are set on hilltops. The later pictures have lost this
feeling. The sculptures are no longer intimately set amongst conifers,
the connection is lost, the scene is urban, the media changed from
stone to steel in some instances. I think it reflects a major change in
a feeling of connectedness; and the sculptors and the photographer have
unknowingly captured this. Both of them (consciously or unconsciously,
almost certainly the latter) bought into the mindset of their time, and
gave it its accepted look. Nowadays the dwarves, pixies and mists have
left the silent forest, no self-respecting parent tells fairy tales
during walks, and Germans drive everywhere in a frenetic haste. The
forests are permeated by the sound of distant traffic. On the second of
my two visits to Germany, 5 yrs ago, it seemed to me that much of it
has become a continuous community with green spaces in it, rather than
vice versa.

On a personal note, this, I think, is one facet (the German facet?) of
a major shift in our perceptions of the world as our population grows,
and grows increasingly urban. When children know the intricacies of
computers and credit cards, but don't know the differences in how all
the plants in the field look, or taste. When even our elders are become
people who have grown up in a throughly modern world, when grandparents
can speak of high school, we can no longer deeply know that skies
devoid of birds are not natural and something to be alarmed about.

n


Norman Watts, Ph. D.
National Institutes of Health
50 South Drive, Rm. 1509
Bethesda, MD 20892-8025
Phone: (301) 402-3418
Fax: (301) 480-7629

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