Student Involvement

The Prairie Earthworks Project provided students in Will Pergl's Sculpture 242 Class the opportunity to meditate on the geographic area of central Iowa, what it is and what it once was. The Conard Environmental Research Area (CERA) is large enough one can imagine what central Iowa was once like before the land was farmed.

Earthworks have been a major force in contemporary sculpture since the 1960's. For most artists working within the earthworks tradition, the method of creating a sculpture becomes a part of a process of interpreting their surroundings. As the sculptor works in an area ideas are materialized through the transformation of materials usually found at the site.

The Prairie Earthworks Project was an opportunity for the students in the class to explore this contemporary tradition of sculpture produced and experienced in the natural landscape.

The setting of a sculpture in the natural landscape provides a different set of references than the gallery or museum. The earthwork cannot be self-referential like a painting or sculpture in gallery or museum can. The earthwork's context is part of its content.

Click on thumbnail photos below to view more photos for each project: