Throughout time art has been an outlet for people to express their ideas, explore the unknown, communicate stories, create awareness and produce new forms of visual beauty. Land art has developed into an avenue for the new generation of artists to widen their perspective on the connection between art and the environment. Lucy Raven’s land art, China Town (2009), creates a photographic animation that reveals the systems of power that support worldwide communications and commerce. When viewing the piece of work for the first time, one may be curious about the reasoning of selecting an unconventional video format. Yet, Raven creates a unique visual experience for the viewers and combines multiple disciplines seamlessly by accompanying thousands …show more content…
By Raven using her research for her art it allows her to gain a greater connection to what she is producing and allows the viewer to absorb her own personal experiences as if they were their own. By primarily incorporating visual and audible segments, Raven continues to reveal her passion for experimenting in video installations. China Town was a piece of work that Raven was able go in the field to research the transformation of ore and translate it into a piece of visual art. Throughout Raven’s artwork, she continues to explore “into the effects of technology and labor in the production of movies, as well as the poetic relationship between sound and image.” Raven is motivated by her landscape and the way in which the environment and human processes are connected. In her artwork China Town, Raven discovers the idea of making her images and sounds have an appearing and disappearing illusion. Raven communicates this feature to her viewers by utilizing unique forms of video animation. Due to Raven’s interest in technology and the environment, she continues to investigate and explore for the networks of influencers that prosper the global …show more content…
By Raven taking this journey out in the field it gives her a deeper understanding of the labor roles, culture, environmental and economic concerns in society. This piece of art showcases the environmental and economic system in the lens of industries and how the global need for natural resources is continuing to expand on a global scale. This video animation also illustrates the constant reusing of land space in the United States and the factors that contribute to the production of goods as capital for an underdeveloped country. The juxtaposition of Raven’s journey is evident as she explores the process in a historic mining town in Nevada to the rapid industrialization and growing population demands in China. Behind Raven’s work, China Town reveals the connection to Chinese immigrant laborers who worked on mine sites in Nevada. Raven gained inspiration for this piece from the laborers who worked on the construction of the transcontinental railroad which was part of a mining site originally called “Chinatown.” Raven became curious about creating this project when she became interested in a copper mine called Bingham Pit where Robert Smithson had proposed, yet never completed a reclamation project. Raven dives into the ideas of labor and