ELKINS PARK, PA.- Opening in November 2008 at Temple Gallery, Field Reports: Documents and Strategies from Land Arts of the American West examines new developments in the study of landscape with documents and strategies produced by “Land Arts of the American West,” a field program that combines art practices with the broader overlays of ecology, archaeology, geography, performance, architecture, and science. Creating work both on site and in the studio, these interdisciplinary investigations encompass the natural forces that shape the land and the social and cultural dynamics that define place.

Each year, Land Arts of the American West travels more than 8,000 miles with fourteen students, to live and work in the landscape of the Southwest for over fifty days. Visiting sites such as the Roden Crater Project, Chaco Canyon, Spiral Jetty, and the Bonneville Salt Flats, their itinerary combines investigative sites, where they encounter significant cultural interventions, and work sites, where they produce work in direct response to an expanding definition of landscape. Land Arts operates with a “no-trace” ethic, making every effort to minimize the impact of their work and evidence of their inhabitation. The program was started in 2000 by Bill Gilbert and has developed as a collaboration between Gilbert and Chris Taylor since 2002.

Organized by Land Arts co-director Chris Taylor, Assistant Professor of Architecture at Texas Tech University, this exhibition will include photographic and video documents from Land Arts participants (artists, designers, architects, film makers, historians, and writers) and collaborative works produced by the program.

Strategies within these documents will form the basis of an accompanying charrette that will demonstrate the working practices of Land Arts by testing them in other territories. Kate Wingert-Playdon, Associate Professor of Architecture at Tyler School of Art, will work with Taylor and Temple University students to examine Philadelphia as a site. Students will spend a week touring a variety of places, including dump sites, historic industrial sites, hazardous waste sites, and garbage mounds. A companion exhibition will present their projects for a specific site in the city, opening in January at Temple Gallery.

A number of public programs are planned in conjunction with this exhibition, including a public lecture with Matthew Coolidge, Director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, on Friday, January 9, 2009. Details of this and other events can be found at www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions.