ART INSIGHTS Creating Wealth as a Successful Artist - John Dahlsen

plastics assembled into abstract fields thatcame to evoke landscapes. Unlike mostenvironmental artists, Dahlsen made hiswork not from conventionally ‘natural’materials — soil, grass, stones, for instance— but rather from the ‘artificial’ materialsthat nature has reclaimed and sculptedthrough erosion. His works activelymobilized the unstable boundaries betweenwhat is human-made and what is natural.These works not only transform rubbishinto objects of value, raising questionsabout the assignation of cultural worth.They also compel the viewer to make linksbetween the cycles of production and useof everyday functional objects, and thoseof art. What distinguishes a piece of plasticground to crystal-like translucency by timeand water, from a work of art? Can art shiftour thinking on matters of sustainability,or is it complicit in the exploitation of theearth’s resources for human consumption?For many of the original land artists, themove to sculptural form carved out of161