I have just come across the work of Nils Udo an environmental eco artist who creates the most fantastic structures out of nature itself. His work ranges from stone monuments through to delicate leaf structures, hand he has worked on various commercial ventures such as the album cover for Peter Gabriel’s OVO through to Guerlain ad campaigns.Working directly with nature Nils Udo uses found materials such as sticks, berries, fallen trees and creates fantastic mysterious worlds which is a design response to the landscape. Magical  lakes, Romantic landscapes, he creates fairytales and magic within the delicate balance of nature itself.The Clay nest was a particular favorite of mine and was designed using logs and bamboo  moulded into an 80 ton nest and the most ordinary materials are transformed into the extraordinary.

Here is the artists statement regarding his work;

Sketching with flowers. Painting with clouds. Writing with water. Tracing the May wind, the path of a falling leaf.

Working for a thunderstorm. Awaiting a glacier. Bending the wind. Directing water and light. The May-green call of the cuckoo and the invisible trace of its flight. Space.

The cry of an animal. The bitter taste of daphne. Burying the pond and the dragon-fly. Setting fire to the fog and the perfume of the yellow barberry.

Marrying sounds, colors and smells. The green grass. Counting a forest and a meadow.

To unite, condense and amalgamate the specific possibilities of a landscape at a given season to form a unique pinnacle, the apotheosis of that season in that landscape. Implementing what is potentially possible, what latently exists in nature, to literally allow what never existed but was always there to become reality; the ever present – Utopia. Even one second of a lifetime is enough. The event has happened.I have awakened it and made it visible.

A picture. A leaf, laden with flowers, drifting down a brook. Life.

Nils Udo

Green Museum .org

Born in Bavaria  Undo was originally a painter and began working with the landscape in 1972 through to present day.

 

 

 

 

 

17 Apr This entry was published on April 17, 2012 at 3:37 pm. It’s filed under Exhibitions, Green Design and tagged eco, Guerlain, Land Art, nature, Nils Udo, Peter Gabriel. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.