Soil, Rock, and Matter:

Where do we see Earth's labor? Does Earth, like a body, also perform work?

“My use of natural stone without any embellishment seems to cause perplexity in people whose thinking is centered on the human ego. The stone I bring into my work does not represent me. It is not intended to speak my words. It is an uncertain entity that communicates with the outside world while accepting its limitations. I make art in order to see how I can relate to an undefined and unfamiliar unknown.”

-Lee Ufan (b. 1936)

Through the works of monoha artists, Lee Ufan (b. 1936) and Nobuo Sekine (1942-2019), we can begin to think about what it means to embrace the labor and body of the earth. 

In Lee’s Relatum – A Signal, once the human act of placing the stone and steel panel is finished, it is left to the Earth to rust the steel, to weather the stone, and to respond with the materials through time and chance. The Earth is at the center of the work and becomes the main force that act out its own labor that is beyond human control or intervention. 

In Phase - Mother Earth, Nobuo Sekine employed an industrial excavator to dig a deep hole in the ground of Suma Rikyū Park in Japan. The soil removed from the ground was then encased in cement, and compacted into a cylindrical mold. After a week, Sekine loosened the mold to reveal a cylinder of compressed soil, next to it an empty hole. 

In this act of excavation and compression, Sekine reveals a layered collaboration between human and Earthly labor. The human digs, pours, and constructs, but it is the Earth that supplies the material body and bears the transformation. The soil must submit to displacement, endure pressure, and turn into form. Here, Sekine stages a process in which the Earth’s own material agency—its density, moisture, and malleability—co-produces the work. Labor becomes reciprocal: the artist activates the Earth, and the Earth, in turn, completes the gesture.

Bibliography

"An encounter with Lee Ufan: What it Means to Accept 'Uncertainty.'" Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Accessed May 5, 2025. https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/story/20170303-823.html

Klavins, Bernadette. "Acts of Revealing: Nobuo Sekine's Phase - Mother Earth." fine print, December 2018. https://www.fineprintmagazine.com/articles/17-acts-of-revealing-nobuo-sekines-phase-mother-earth