I am interested in the changing attitudes towards nature and wilderness. And in turn how nature and wilderness are represented within different cultural periods. A close examination of these changing attitudes reveals that nature is neither holy nor wicked, but a mirror that reflects the attitude of the individual or culture that gazes into it.
Simon Schama discusses Caspar David Friedrich's
Winter Landscape in his book
Landscape and Memory. Friedrich paints a palette of white, blue, and green with a solitary figure in the middle ground praying before a cross:
Caspar David Friedrich, Winter Landscape, ca. 1811According to Schama, Friedrich, much to the dismay of his fellow Germans, merged sacred art and landscape. During a time when most Christians saw the wilderness as the landscape of demons, Friedrich saw it as a holy place. In
Winter Landscape, a Gothic Cathedral sores in the background. This style of architecture was venerated by Friedrich as being the most holy and most in tune with nature. Though the figure is surrounded by
wintry despair, the evergreen trees represent the promise of eternal life that is embodied in Christianity. While alone in the landscape, the figure finds faith.
In 19th century America, Nathaniel Hawthorne provides a different perspective. Hawthorne's character Young Goodman Brown finds Faith at home within his village. In fact, Brown leaves Faith (his wife) behind in order to descend into the wilderness. This story was written during a time of American Romanticism, but embodies the Puritanical attitude towards wilderness as being a place of demons. Brown ruminates as he enters the woods: "'There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree,' said Goodman Brown, to himself; and he glanced fearfully behind him, as he added, 'What if the devil should be at my very elbow!'"
In some instances the wilderness is a site for violence, as it is illustrated in Anselm Kiefer's
Varus, 1976:
Anselm Kiefer, Varus, 1976.According to Schama, "the artist made another, decisive engagement with the myth and memory of the German past. In
Varus the line of perspective leads the beholder along a wintry, blood-stained path, where the dirty snow seems mixed with ashes, into the depths of the Teutoburger Wald, made dark and sinister."
German history is no stranger to violence with all of the fighting between the Germanic tribes and the Romans. But most likely Kiefer had the brutality of the Nazi party in mind when visualizing this piece. I find the one-point perspective particularly affective in this work. It draws the viewer in and forces them to stroll down the blood-soaked path, considering the layers of violent history contained within the leaves of the forest. The looseness of the brush strokes lends itself to memory, rather than pure realism.
Seeing the wilderness as a place of violence was somewhat of a change for German representation. The early Germanic tribes practiced paganism and wilderness worship. This was part of the reason why they feuded with the Romans, who practiced Christianity. Reportedly the Romans were also disgusted by the fact that the Germanic tribes cooked everything in butter. They preferred olive oil.
Understanding that nature appreciation is an
attitude has helped me to appreciate the nature that is available here in the Chicagoland area. Arriving in my new home in 2004, I was quite critical of the limited green space that Chicago had to offer. But as I photographed and studied, I began to realize that the issue wasn't with constructed landscape that I meandered through, but the lens that I viewed it with.
And so I find that Thoreau's words make more sense than ever:
"It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigor of nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador any greater wildness than in some recess of Concord, i.e. than I import into it."
BG
Labels: Anselm Kiefer, Caspar David Friedrich, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nature
