Aerial Art

My friend Eric posted an image of a woodblock by artist Shiko Munakata, but enlarged in a rice paddy in Inakadate to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth. About 600 of the villagers participated in the evolving land-art, made from variously-colored rice plants.



The aerial view reminds me of the work of Kansas artist Stan Herd, who uses crops to create images ideally viewed from an airplane. Like the Munakata work in Japan, Herd's pieces are large scale, temporal, agrarian, colorful, and collaborative, requiring more than one individual for their fruition. They are also reminiscent of ancient earthworks by Native American cultures, making each timeless regardless of their temporary nature.