Earth casting is an affordable way of making very big things that are very strong and permanent. But more important than that, it’s a way of working whereby human intention—what I want, what I engineer—is in balance with nature, in this case the geology of the ground, which pushes back and affects the work.
-Thomas Sayre
Thomas Sayre’s Gyre sculpture is an example of his earth castings, which are 3-D pieces created by sculpting directly into the earth. As he says in the quote above, the way he creates his sculpture is similar to a dialogue in which the material, the geology of the ground, “pushes back and affects the work.” How does an artist shape the media, and vice versa: how can the media influence the artist?
Watch the video above to hear Sayre discuss his earth casting process.