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Red Earth, "Outcrop", a series of 30' high sculptures on the South Downs Way near Ditchling Beacon, England, August-September 2000.

Red Earth

As an "international environmental arts group creating site-specific installations and performances in response to the landscape", the UK-based group, Red Earth, brings collaboration and spectacle to remote locations throughout the world. Led by Simon Pascoe and Caitlin Easterby, their large scale events can involve everything from Japanese Butoh dancers, Javanese shadow-puppets, British archeologists, geologists, farmers, historians as well as local communities and combine fire, water, sculpture, ceremonial music, dance and even digital media.

The group brings an integrative approach to researching a particular place and coordinating multi-sensory participatory events around it. Designed to create a link between people, landscape and history, "Outcrop" (2000), for example, took place in an agricultural area near Ditchling Beacon, England. The artists involved land managers, countryside rangers, local farmers and volunteers in the creative process which culminated in a public sculpture/performance.

The project embodies "the notion of pilgrimage, moving the audience into a different space through the effort to get there - transition, excitement, an active meditation in the journey. 1,000 people walked three miles in the dark to witness the burning of OUTCROP on the Autumn Equinox. A communal ritual to mark the turning of the year from light to dark, to capture a spirit of death and regrowth, a cyclical renewal through the destructive and regenerative element of fire."

Other projects have called attention to the archeology of Neolithic enclosures, the dynamics of coastal erosion and the metaphysics of breath with the help of Japanese performers set in the dramatically lit ruins of Canterbury Castle in England. Red Earth's eclectic mix of themes, locations and cultural influences reinforce the deep ties we share with other humans around the world. It is a fundamental impulse to connect with the seasons, elements and senses and to gather and celebrate the natural world around us. Red Earth's work resonates powerfully with geological time and "weaves between the living and the dead in a landscape."

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