Environments
What are art environments?
This term is customarily used to refer to immobile constructions or decorative assemblages, monumental in scale or number of components. Art environments may be interior or exterior, and typically include elements of sculpture, architecture, bas-relief assemblage, and/or landscape architecture. Such composite works, produced additively and organically without formal architectural designs or engineering plans, owe less allegiance to folk, popular, or mainstream art traditions and the desire to produce anything functional or marketable, and more to personal and cultural experiences, availability of materials, and a desire for personal creative expression. They are generally intended to be viewed in their entirety rather than as a grouping of discrete works.
Although constructions known as art environments typically slip between the foci of most academic disciplines, a worldwide genre of such monumental structures has been defined in the last few decades, thanks in large part to the work of SPACES. Studies of individual sites usually reveal the labors of a single, passionate worker (an artist in our eyes, but not always in those of the creator), typically—but not always—begun in the later years of their lives.
What about their preservation?
Documenting and preserving the cultural heritage of these environments is an essential component of the study of this genre, but it is its most problematic aspect. In some instances title to the property upon which the environment was constructed has been contested or is claimed by a governmental entity for flood control, freeway construction, urban redevelopment or the like; in others the very monumentality and imposing presence of the works have brought issues of public safety and community property values to the fore. Equally significant has been the use of non-traditional materials and unconventional building methods by many of these artists, most of whom worked in a trial-and-error mode without thought to long-term preservation needs.
Art environments often challenge aesthetic and conceptual community values at the same time that they are beset by environmental degradations; this combination can be a fatal prognosis for their ongoing stability and preservation. Numerous sites have suffered partial or total destruction—even some that had achieved official local or state landmark status—despite months and even years of legal wrangling by preservation advocates. The creation of personal worlds by non-academic builders, passionately recycling our society's discards in an effort to publicly proclaim love of country or religion, retell local histories or tales, or just "make something big," as Sam Rodia, creator of the Watts Towers, is said to have claimed, does not bring with it a guarantee of eternal existence. Nevertheless, the tremendous influence that many of these works have had upon the art world—from numerous contemporary artists and art historians to folklorists and the entire field of "Outsider Art"—would seem to warrant their protection.
Because art environments cannot be hermetically stored, they need continued vigilance and a concerted effort from local community members—backed up by art and preservation professionals internationally—to ensure their survival. Without such advocacy, we risk the ultimate extinction of this extraordinary—albeit idiosyncratic—visual form of roadside Americana.
