Anatomy of a Landscape
terracotta
Anatomy of a Landscape is made up of two-metre terracotta columns of Impruneta clay from Tuscany. The installation evokes an abstract forest in which the raw, coarse clay holds the essential energy of the plant world. The column has long been a symbol of support and strength. Historically derived from the trunk of a tree — a simple form able to rise from the ground almost by magic — it later developed into stone and marble and became a symbol of solidity and permanence. In this work, however, the columns look deliberately precarious. Torn surfaces, lumps and irregular movements suggest instability and vulnerability. Yet their strength is real. Firing transforms the wet, changeable clay into a stable, durable material that permanently fixes what was once soft and restless. Fragility thus appears as a visible state: the moment of transformation, in which vulnerability becomes texture and instability sets into solid form.
What the sculpture looks like
The sculpture Anatomy of a Landscape consists of five vertical forms that stand apart from one another yet together create a single whole. The individual objects are spaced at regular intervals of roughly one metre. Their arrangement recalls an elongated pentagon standing on end. Each form grows straight out of the ground and stands on its own low base. These bases are flat, small and square. They were made by removing the turf. Each exposed patch is edged with a narrow, slightly raised strip of grass.
Slender cylindrical forms rise from these bases. They are tall and narrow. Their basic construction is simple, but their surface is extremely rich. All of them keep similar proportions: vertical, elongated and compact. None of the objects, however, forms a perfect geometric cylinder. Their outlines undulate gently, narrowing or widening in places. The upper parts are flat but irregularly shaped.
The whole composition has a warm, earthy colouring. An orange-brown tone predominates, coming from the material itself. The objects are made of terracotta, that is, fired clay. Light emphasises the unevenness of the surface and shadows change the colouring of the individual parts. On the raised places the material is lighter, rust-coloured to sandy. In the hollows it shifts into darker brown tones. This makes the broken surface very easy to read.
The most important element of the whole sculpture is its texture. Each column is covered with a dense layer of protrusions, folds, hollows and cracks. The surface looks as if it had been modelled by hand from wet clay and then repeatedly pressed, torn and deformed. There are no smooth or quiet areas. The whole form is porous and strongly sculptural.
Deep pits and bowl-like hollows of various sizes appear on the surface of the columns. Some are small, like fingerprints. Others are wide, elongated and edged with thin, ragged rims.
These rims project into space in places. They twist, crack and form ridges or soft irregular protrusions. In some places the material looks as if it had been torn away from the surface and stopped mid-movement. Elsewhere it sinks inwards, creating darker and deeper openings. Horizontal shifts and fissures are also visible on the columns, recalling the places where individual layers of material meet.
The sculpture is neither figurative nor descriptive. It is composed of repeating vertical forms that may recall sections cut through a landscape or elongated fragments of earth. Its character arises from the contrast between the simple arrangement of tall columns and their extraordinarily complex, organic surface.
The setting of the object is formed by a body of water and the trees growing around it. The columns may recall the moment a landscape comes into being, yet at the same time they act as totems – landmarks, or places to which the surrounding space refers. From a greater distance their porous clay surface can resemble cracked tree bark or exposed layers of soil.
How to find the sculpture
Stromovka park by the Bagr lake, České Budějovice. The work consists of five vertical forms standing apart from one another yet forming a single whole. Each grows straight out of the ground on its own low base and is edged by a narrow raised strip of grass. You walk between them across the lawn.
