Land art and site specific sculpture - land art uses the environment and its scale as its material. Concrete art is expressed in material itself with which the artist introduces her non-representational objective. Public art can be viewed and accessed by observers.
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proposal sketches for Nilai Memorial Park

Kuala Lumpur opening page | sound barrier meander | island ship | cremation stone field or mound | land art | sculpture

island ship

As both curves are sections of two intersecting imaginary circles, the resulting shape is called a lens.

During my second visit to the park I noticed the biconvex shaped field across from the reception building, bounded by two curves: the access road in the east and a waterway on the west side. As both curves are sections of two intersecting imaginary circles, the resulting shape is also called a lens. Imagining this shape as visualized from above I saw it an allegory for the ship of the dead.

Khufu ship was probably a funerary "barge" used to carry the king's embalmed body from Memphis to Giza
"Khufu solar barge", a ritual vessel to carry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens.
Canoes of the dead in The Painted Cave, Niah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.
Canoes of the dead in The Painted Cave, Niah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.

On the east there is the waterway and the curve on the west is a concrete drainage gutter; when this last ditch could be deepened, the lens would be an island with the shape of a ship. As it is possible to inscribe an imaginary ellipse in the ship, there is a reason to mark its two focal points at either end of the island with mast-like verticals. Around these could be small circular areas connected to each other with a long narrow walkway. These two focal areas can visually support the expression of the whole and at the same time offer repose for those who enter the space. I want to plant trees in a grid-like alignment concentric to the curved edges of the island, while at the same time their ends flank the passageway between the focal places. I am thinking of rubber trees (Hevea Brasiliensis).

An island with the shape of a ship.
Across from the the north point of the island there is the concrete construction and duct allowing rainwater to pass under the access road. For me this construction evokes the past function of this place. It can be reevaluated and upgraded by using it as part of the land art piece. Its orientation serves as a starting point for one of the curves. The same material - concrete - and expression can be used in the accentuation of the bows/sterns of the island shape. These points should be visually distinct. At the same time they invite repose for those who enter the island. The access should be discrete and unassuming - in such a way one can venture onto it.

two dense intersecting concentric grids of Hivea Brasiliensis - land art with rubber trees.
Two concentric grids of rubber trees intersect along the passageway.

Passageway between the focal places. At the moment I am thinking of rubber trees (Hevea Brasiliensis).
the passageway should be narrower than in this example. And the interspaces between the trees result from the intersection of concentric rows with the edges of the path. The visual result will be that you see many trees growing close together while the interspaces between the ones along the path tell differently. If there is the possibillity that rubber could be tapped from thes trees, I would like to wish that the incisions on the opposite sides of the path be mirrored.

Across from the the north point of the island there is the concrete construction and duct allowing rainwater to pass under the access road. For me this construction evokes the past function of this place. It can be reevaluated and upgraded by using the same material and expression in the accentuation of the bows/sterns of the island shape. These points should be visually distinct. At the same time they invite repose for those who enter the island. The entree or entrees should be discrete and unassuming. In that way one can venture onto it.

Metaphors the ship of life and the isle of the dead. There are mythic, but also true, isles of the dead. There are funerary ships - from old Egypt, via the Viking Ship Burial at Barradoole, Chapel Hill, Isle of Man to the canoes of the dead in the Painted Cave, Niah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur opening page | sound barrier meander | island ship | cremation stone field or mound | land art | sculpture


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