Our good friend Isaac Cordal just closed the year with a major, game-changing project that he completed last month for Landart Lapinjärvi in Finland. After building his reputation with small-scale interventions in urban centers worldwide, Spanish artist just completed this haunting, life-size sculptural installation in an untouched forest near Lapinjärvi.
Working solely with materials sourced at the location, namely branches and mud, Cordal and the team faced a labor-intensive process to complete this project. Building the skeletons for the sculptures off-site, they carried them to the site, along with buckets of mud, molded busts, and tools needed. Battling freezing weather, short daytimes, and remote location, the team finished the project in 6 days, producing Cordal's arguably strongest work to date.
Lapinjärvi Landart from Isaac Cordal on Vimeo.
Working in scale that isn't common for his practice, as well as mixing materials we haven't seen him use in the past, haven't seen him used in the past, the artist created a piece that still completely matches his previous work. Blowing up his miserable and pitiful character to life-size, he kept the general mood of his work, while constructing a completely new narrative. Creating the illusion of his gloomy grey subjects dissolving into branches, Cordal made a strong commentary on human's dependence and interconnection with nature. The artist kept the peripheral nature of his work by using materials that are very responsive to the weather conditions, making his work somewhat of a performance piece. Using the Finish wilderness as a background and essential part of the work, the 3 lonely sculptures are figuratively and literally getting swallowed by the untamed nature around them. —Sasha Bogojev
