As I mentioned yesterday, transient art fascinates me. I sometimes become frustrated while writing and entertain the thought of pressing the delete key on my files. But I know I have back-ups, so it would be unlikely my work would be irretrievable. I’ve done it with knitting, though, when I’ve spent months knitting a particular pattern, put it aside over summer, and then the following autumn I’ve changed my mind–I’ve frogged the entire thing, reclaimed the yarn, and started something new.
Imagine creating a work of art with the express purpose of letting it go when you’re finished. Imagine working in a medium that is transient, that you cannot preserve. Imagine completing a perfect cycle–perfect balance between creating and destroying.
Kseniya Simonova is an amazingly talented performance artist who uses sand as her medium. She took a risk when she performed an emotionally-charged animation about a couple separated by the second world war as her entry in Ukraine’s Got Talent. Kseniya went on to win the competition.
Have a tissue box handy when you watch:
You can see more of Kseniya’s performances on her official YouTube channel.
Ilana Yahav is another well-known sand artist, from Israel. You can watch clips of Ilana’s performances on her website.
How about you? Have you played with sand? Tried to create art with it? I find it a very difficult medium.
Elle Carter Neal is the author of the middle-grade chapter book The Convoluted Key, picture book I Own All the Blue, and teen science-fantasy novel Madison Lane and the Wand of Rasputin. She has been telling stories for as long as she can remember, holding childhood slumber-party audiences entranced until the early hours of the morning. Elle decided to be an author the day she discovered that real people wrote books and that writing books was a real job.
I have never tried sand art but we used to make some pretty cool sand castles complete with moats when we were kids.
Sean at His and Her Hobbies
My kids are just learning how to build sandcastles now – it’s fun to have an excuse to play in the sand again 😉
I’ve seen some amazing sand sculpture exhibitions, too. Some people are so talented.
I remember watching that video a while back, it’s beautiful. Your blog has made me wonder about transient art now… maybe I need to try to stretch in that direction, see if I can do it. I have my doubts lol I tend to be a little obsessive about leaving things behind to mark my passing when I’m gone, but maybe this is exactly what I need to grow away from that…
It’s an intriguing idea, isn’t it? There’s always the option of taking photographs of your transient artwork, which I sort of think defeats the object. We human beings are very attached to our little creations 🙂