Exhibition Statement

Concept

Does the permanence of art determine its value? Should art be long-lasting, or can it be temporary? In our Ephemeral Art Workshop, we explored these ideas by creating pieces that only lasted a few seconds or minutes. Bound by its limited nature, Ephemeral Art is often contested by artists and viewers alike, as traditional art is preserved and honored by its ability to stand throughout time, existing longer than a fleeting moment. Conversely, Ephemeral Art acts as an experience, remaining for only a short period of time and then disappears by the process of destruction or decay. Examples such as performance art, structural land art, public installation pieces, graffiti, and street art are just a few types of art, embodied within the realm of Ephemeral Art.

We consider Ephemeral Art to be a topic worth exploring as it pertains to classroom conversations, involving the forms, purposes, and functionalities of art. We created this workshop not only to introduce the participants to this genre of art, but also invite them to create artistic pieces with a wide range of materials, shifting their perspectives to how transience impacts Ephemeral artists as well as their audience. By doing so, students learned how our climate impacts our work and how we can tell stories through our artistic pieces.

History and Distinction

Ephemeral Art can be defined as any art created with the understanding or intention that it will not last forever. To fully understand the concept, it is useful to analyze the meaning of each word---“ephemeral” can be defined as visual phenomena meant to be “destroyed, dismantled, or permitted to decompose within hours, days, or, at the most, several months,” (Ravicz). While “art” may be described as visual phenomena with “stimulatory characteristics perceived as aesthetically rewarding to the members of the culture concerned,” (Ravicz). The definition of Ephemeral Art is rather broad, as most types of art are. However, this is also because of its obscure and uncertain history.

 As Ephemeral Art is short-lived and difficult to preserve, the lack of documentation on artistic pieces of the past makes its history unclear. Although, there has been older records of performances and ceremonies in printed texts and images, manuscripts, paintings, and narrative forms from early modern Europe (Smith et al.). “The Matter of Ephemeral Art: Craft, Spectacle and Power…”, discusses how ephemeral performance art, in particular, was used in aristocratic court culture. Nonetheless, true examples of Ephemeral Art are virtually non-existent; however, it has more recently been documented by the invention of technology through electronic media, photographs, and videos.

Due to its brief existence in time, it is important to recognize Ephemeral Art as a distinct experience for both the artist and the viewer. For the creator, the act of making art “has often been hypothesized as being capable of reinforcing a specific response, or of making things memorable,” (Ravicz). While the audience “becomes a participant in the work through their witness” contributing to their collective memory (Martet).

Pulling inspiration from artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Hannah Bullen-Ryner, Kseniya Simonova, and David Zinn, we developed our workshop content. From Andy Goldsworthy, our students learned how to arrange natural materials found on site as eye-catching, self-expressive, and temporary art (Goldsworthy). Hannah Bullen-Ryner taught us to look more closely at the world around us by finding new natural materials to add more color and texture to our work (Bullen-Ryner). Kseniya Simonova tells stories by moving sand around on a light board and videoing her process (Kseniya). We replicated this by moving white sand around on black construction paper and photographing the different stages to tell a story. David Zinn spends hours creating public chalk art and integrating it into the landscape, but it is shortly washed away by the next rain (Zinn). Our students experienced the same by finding perfect cracks in the pavement to use for their chalk art and it watched it get washed away by the next rainy day. The techniques mentioned above are all incredibly unique and although they have been used before, our workshop is innovative by connecting them to the central theme of Ephemeral Art.

Methods

In the process of developing this workshop, we used methods such as literature reviews as well as our personal experiences with Ephemeral Art. For example, in much of the early stages of organizing our workshop, we explored University of Maryland’s online database to find peer-reviewed, scholarly articles focused on Ephemeral artists as well as the history and purposes of Ephemeral Art from different parts of the world. We then incorporated the knowledge we obtained from our research and conceptual questions we found into the class discussions of our workshop. We also shared examples of Ephemeral artworks and techniques from established Ephemeral artists with our students during the lecture section of the workshop each week.

Corinne also connected her background knowledge of Ephemeral land art and Andy Goldsworthy’s work from her Contemporary Art Class she took in high school to our current workshop. Using images of her work she had made for her previous class; Corinne was able to inform us about the versatilities of nature art and inspire our lesson plans. For example, most of our assigned activities during our Nature Art workshops were directly influenced by Goldsworthy’s work, encouraging our students to use only naturally occurring materials, including media such as brightly covered leaves, mud, pinecones etc. We wanted students to look at nature as valuable artistic materials and to “explore the natural bonds and tensions that exist within the earth” in addition to the seasonal limitations of weather as Goldsworthy describes (“The Art of Nature”).

Anngelina’s studies in Early Childhood Education also have helped us become successful workshop leaders. For example, when developing lesson plans and activities she considered how she can make students more engaged in content material and accommodate to their needs and abilities. Using active learning strategies and incorporating different formats or displays of information (“The UDL Guidelines”) have helped us learn how our students best process instructions in class. Including warm-ups that involve movement while using the entirety of the classroom space is an example of intentional teaching we have both implemented in our workshop.

To plan what our students were going to learn each week; we selected a specific Ephemeral Artist/movement/medium from our literature review to focus on. To introduce each weekly topic, we would first give students context and background information so that they had a better idea of what we were learning. We would present a short video or give a short lecture to explain each type of example of Ephemeral Art and then have the students complete a hands-on activity inspired by what they have learned. Lastly, we would include discussion-based learning assessments to stimulate student connection, promote critical thinking, and define their experiences of Ephemeral Art.

Audience and Impact

Our desired workshop audience included those who are interested in exploring many new and unconventional mediums of art. For example, individuals who like venturing outside and collecting found materials from nature may also like this workshop, considering our lessons surrounding land art. People who are passionate about home decor may also be attracted to this workshop since we made candles as a class. Additionally, people who enjoy makeup or are aspiring tattoo artists might also be particularly interested in our topic on ephemeral body art.

As workshop leaders, we also hoped to impact our participants by changing their perspective on Ephemeral Art and how art is valued by society. We wanted them to see that art does not need to last forever to be amazing and that the opportunities to create art from the unexpected materials we are around every day are endless. Moreover, we wanted our participants to find joy creating Ephemeral Art for themselves and for the public. From leading this workshop, we have both gained a lot of confidence through the practice of public speaking and guiding a group of students. By being co-leaders, we also learned how to combine different ideas and experiences, as well as how to create engaging and lessons for our workshop members.

References

Bullen-Ryner, Hannah. “Home.” Hannah Bullen-Ryner Art, 2019, hannahbullenphotogra.wixsite.com/hannahbullen-ryner-l.

          Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

CAST. “Universal Design for Learning Guidelines Version 2.2.” CAST, 2018, udlguidelines.cast.org/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Goldsworthy, Andy. “Andy Goldsworthy: Official Website.” Andy Goldsworthy - Official Website, 27 Apr. 2024,

          andygoldsworthystudio.com/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Martet, Cécile. “Top 5 Ephemeral Art Styles.” Rise Art, 14 Aug. 2023, www.riseart.com/article/2606/top-5-ephemeralart-styles.

 Accessed 27 Apr. 2024

“Nature as Medium | the Art of Nature.” Blogs.uoregon.edu, blogs.uoregon.edu/artofnature/nature-as-art/nature-as-medium/. 

Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Ravicz, Marilyn Ekdahl. “Ephemeral Art: A Case for the Functions of Aesthetic Stimuli.” Semiotica, vol. 30, no. 1-2, 1980,       https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1980.30.1-2.115. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Simonova, Kseniya. “KSENIYASIMONOVA.” Kseniya Simonova | Sand Artist, 2019, www.simonova.tv/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Smith, Pamela H., et al. “The Matter of Ephemeral Art: Craft, Spectacle, and Power in Early Modern Europe.” Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 1,

2020, pp. 78–131,  https://doi.org/10.1017/rqx.2019.496. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Zinn, David. “Street Art by David Zinn.” Street Art by David Zinn, 2024, zinnart.com/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Arts scholars faculty – Heather, Harold, Gabi, and Alex – for guiding us throughout the semester and for teaching us how to develop our workshop curriculum and create lesson plans to benefit our students. Thank you to our TA Iniya, for all your help and for being there each week. Lastly, thank you to the participants for making this workshop so much fun and for inspiring us with your amazing work every single week.