Fine Line: Twelve Environmental Sculptures Encircle the Earth
Fine Line: Twelve Environmental Sculptures Encircle the Earth
Martin Hill and Philippa Jones
Bateman Books, Auckland, 2021
Hardback, 264 Pages, 280 × 280 mm
Reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton for Kete Books
In 1995, two adventurous artists decided to follow their hearts, creative instincts and life principles to draw a symbolic line around the earth. They embarked on a global environmental art project to create twelve ephemeral sculptures in remote mountain locations around the world. The sculptures were made from natural materials found at each site, enduring only in the mind (and in photographs) as an artistic evocation of the temporary and interconnected nature of life.
Fine Line is Hill and Jones’ personal story of a 25-year commitment to art and to nature. The Fine Line they express with their stories, sculptures and breath-taking photography speaks to the fundamental disconnect of our time – humanity’s fractured relationship with nature.
Over 200 superb photographs accompanied by compelling essays by international specialists in systems theory, climate science, fine art photography and regenerative design further elaborate on the artists’ ecological philosophy. The end result is a book that is powerful, timely and inspiring.
The Fine Line concept
In 1995 I wrote: I am sitting on a beach looking at the sky and the sea when a flash of inspiration strikes me. I had been wondering how I could live the rest of my life doing what I loved most, climbing and creating environmental art to communicate my sustainable design philosophy. My vision: A symbolic line drawn around the earth, touching it at a series of twelve high points. I will climb to each of these points and make sculptures from natural materials I find there, photographing the sculptures and leaving them to be harmlessly absorbed back into the environment from which they were made.
I sketched the image on a scrap of paper and began mapping out possible destinations on an old globe, drawing and redrawing circular lines round it until I was satisfied. I called it the ‘Fine Line’ – because of the fine line we tread between economic prosperity and ecological disaster. The working process seemed to symbolise what I wanted to say: that nature’s cyclical systems can serve as a design model for a circular regenerative economy. Having a good idea is one thing; doing it is another. I showed my idea to my partner Philippa, with whom I share a passion for climbing. In the spirit of adventure, she immediately agreed to accompany me and to collaborate in making the twelve sculptures. The Fine Line would act as a metaphor for both the problems of and the solutions to the world’s ecological and social crises. It would evoke a symbolic thread linking the invisible connections and interdependence of everything in the regenerative web of life upon which all life relies. Its circularity would refer to the interconnection of all life forms. That the world’s environment is in trouble is obvious. We have all heard about global warming, deforestation, acidification of oceans, extinction of species and a host of other potentially catastrophic problems, all created by we humans who are the only species that creates waste that nature cannot digest. What is less obvious is what we can do about it. Through my reading on the subject, it has become clear to me that we need to fundamentally rethink the way we do things as human beings. We need to redesign our lives, businesses and energy use so that we live within the limits of our planet’s environment. This means fulfilling our needs without detrimentally affecting the ability of future generations to meet theirs. But how do we go about this? The changes required seem to run counter to the industrial and economic system that dominates our patterns of life and consumption. Can the system be redesigned from a linear system of take-make-waste to one that is cyclical, like nature’s? As I learned more about our environmental predicament, I discovered people and businesses who were already successfully doing this – fundamentally rethinking the way they operate. By using renewable energy sources and whole-system design, they become in harmony with natural systems. By creating an artwork out of what we find and leaving it to return to nature, the project imitates nature’s cyclical systems in which everything is reused or becomes food or energy for another species or process. Now in 2021, with the twelve sculptures completed and the line encircling the earth connected, we are in the midst of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which health organisations claim indicates the failed relationship between humans and nature. The world is finally attempting to halt carbon emissions, save biodiversity and create equity and justice before we cross that fine line. In years to come, when the dominant worldview becomes an ecological one focused on well-being not wealth, perhaps we will look back on this time and reflect on how simple it was to change our minds.
– Martin Hill
Wānaka, March 2021
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