Symbolism and Art in the Landscape

[Ian Andrew]

Can art and golf design combine?


I happen to think Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam’s Veteran’s Memorial is one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen. The concept of an open wound, presented as an open scar in the earth, was a terrific symbolic of where the country was after the war. The choice of sharing each name with us in the order in which they were killed drives home the personal loss for many families who were largely ignored through post war politics. I think this is all driven home when you find your own face reflected back to you in the polished black granite leaving you to deal with the raw emotions of the site.

Golf Architects have also tried to incorporate symbolism for generations.  Stanley Thompson’s has built many whimsical ideas including the infamous Dragon and Fireball bunkers on the 5th hole at Highlands Links. Desmond Muirhead tried to turn the golf course into an artistic canvas with some humorous concepts like the Mermaid and some controversial concepts like “Jason and the Argonauts”. As recently as 2006, French architect Robert Berthet built a course based upon a military fortification theme.

Some of these ideas worked, others did not, interestingly the basis of that determination is less about the artistic vision and more about the ability to play the course.

There are spectacular examples of art in the land. One of my favourites is the Spiral Jetty created by Robert Smithson in 1970. Another is the ancient Uffington White Horse found in the Chalk Hills of England. One of the places that I personally find very inspirational is The Serpent Mounds in Ohio. What is impressive about these special places is how such a large concept still holds some intimacy at a human scale. The other aspect is the emotional connection we get to something so articulate.

There are lots of smaller concepts that give pause and make us realize the limitations are less than we thing. One particular project that impressed me was by Mehamet Ali Uysal. His brilliant, funny and clever sculpture in the Park Chaudfontaine in Belgium made me realize I needed to listen a little more of my inner child and the creativity being trapped by the practical mind. There are so many ideas in landscape architecture that haven’t been fully explored such as trompe l'oeil. The ideas are there to be explored for someone who’s not afraid to step out of the normal bounds of convention.

The success of Stanley Thompson came from the fact that golf came first. The whimsical elements were simply accents to a course laid out with strategic elements and good solid design principles.  Art was secondary to play. The failure of Desmond Muirhead was that his courses were poor designs with many inherent playability issues. He failed to recognize the game came before his art.

Part of what me going on this subject was the fact that Maya Lin’s “Wave Field,” a most fascinating set of forms, bares some similarity is to Walter Travis’s “Nutmeg grinders” found at a number of his courses.

[Peter Pallotta]

Ian - another good thread.

My view: you note that what's impressive about some of the places/works of art you mentioned is that large concepts can retain intimacy on a human scale, and emotional connections.

Given that, it seems to me that when it comes to gca, the question is how to best and most satisfyingly connect the golfer to the landscape, how to best and in the most human way allow him to play the game on a landscape the designer-artist has shaped for this specific purpose while not sacrificing an emotional relationship to the larger concept, which in this case is Nature. 

While it seems true that Thompson was succesful at introducing art/whimsy because he made that secondary to playability and good design principles, I still wonder how any such explicit and self-conscious bits of art making serve to best connect person to place, golfer to nature.

Peter

[Melvyn Morrow]

Ian

Not forgetting Tom D self-portrait when in the UK in the early 1980’s.

As always Tom is ready for anything - even included his new club design, yes the one he his holding, just to avoid confusion

[David_Tepper]

Ian A. -

Are you familiar with the artistic work of Andy Goldsworthy? He does some truly remarkable stuff that is entirely in and of the landscape.
If you have not seen "Rivers and Tides," the documentary made about him and his work, I recommend it highly.

Here is an excerpt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5qrE_rBrJQ

DT 

[Anthony Gray]

  At Cap Cana Jack designed a par 3 where the bunkers and green look like a bear paw. Did not interfere with playability and was quit ingenious.

  Anthony

[David_Tepper]

Desmond Muirhead was a leading practitioner:

http://johnstrawn.com/golf/golf/personalities/213/channeling-desmond-muirhead

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.golftoimpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/oak_village_golf2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.golftoimpress.com/tomorrow-desmond-muirheads-oak-village-in-ichihara/&h=480&w=640&sz=56&tbnid=jBVmO1N6tBsMTM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=128&zoom=1&docid=G2zm79ESryyCvM&sa=X&ei=4ypqT7bfEYShiAKG5s2aBQ&ved=0CEoQ9QEwBQ&dur=934

[Tom_Doak]

Can art and golf design combine?


I happen to think Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam’s Veteran’s Memorial is one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen. The concept of an open wound, presented as an open scar in the earth, was a terrific symbolic of where the country was after the war. The choice of sharing each name with us in the order in which they were killed drives home the personal loss for many families who were largely ignored through post war politics. I think this is all driven home when you find your own face reflected back to you in the polished black granite leaving you to deal with the raw emotions of the site.

Golf Architects have also tried to incorporate symbolism for generations.  Stanley Thompson’s has built many whimsical ideas including the infamous Dragon and Fireball bunkers on the 5th hole at Highlands Links. Desmond Muirhead tried to turn the golf course into an artistic canvas with some humorous concepts like the Mermaid and some controversial concepts like “Jason and the Argonauts”. As recently as 2006, French architect Robert Berthet built a course based upon a military fortification theme.

Some of these ideas worked, others did not, interestingly the basis of that determination is less about the artistic vision and more about the ability to play the course.

There are spectacular examples of art in the land. One of my favourites is the Spiral Jetty created by Robert Smithson in 1970. Another is the ancient Uffington White Horse found in the Chalk Hills of England. One of the places that I personally find very inspirational is The Serpent Mounds in Ohio. What is impressive about these special places is how such a large concept still holds some intimacy at a human scale. The other aspect is the emotional connection we get to something so articulate.

There are lots of smaller concepts that give pause and make us realize the limitations are less than we thing. One particular project that impressed me was by Mehamet Ali Uysal. His brilliant, funny and clever sculpture in the Park Chaudfontaine in Belgium made me realize I needed to listen a little more of my inner child and the creativity being trapped by the practical mind. There are so many ideas in landscape architecture that haven’t been fully explored such as trompe l'oeil. The ideas are there to be explored for someone who’s not afraid to step out of the normal bounds of convention.

The success of Stanley Thompson came from the fact that golf came first. The whimsical elements were simply accents to a course laid out with strategic elements and good solid design principles.  Art was secondary to play. The failure of Desmond Muirhead was that his courses were poor designs with many inherent playability issues. He failed to recognize the game came before his art.

Part of what me going on this subject was the fact that Maya Lin’s “Wave Field,” a most fascinating set of forms, bares some similarity is to Walter Travis’s “Nutmeg grinders” found at a number of his courses.

Ian:

I have a client now who is interested in the same subjects, and I think someday we might get to build a project that's pretty far out in the artistic sphere, as you describe.  I'm thinking the best place to try it is on a short course [par-3 or kids' course] where people might be more open to something really different.  A full-scale 18-hole version would be a pretty big roll of the dice.

In the end, the client had better really love the idea, because the golf establishment will skewer it.

[David_Tepper]

"From Bauhaus to Golf Course"

http://www.isteve.com/golf_art.htm

[Melvyn Morrow]

"From Bauhaus to Golf Course"

The written word is somewhat incorrect and sprouts inaccuracies re the bunkers in this over simplified article, but then who cares, ignorance abounds just like the blooms. Anyone used a Rangefinder to judge the distance of the flowers?

Melvyn

[Ian Andrew]

The Serpent Mounds


Dunkerque

[Mike Nuzzo]

Ian
Can you share some pictures of the nutmeg grinders?
Are you looking forward to the Schmidt Curley holes that come from the fan competition?
Cheers

[Mac Plumart]

With all this talk about a work of art, these are the images that come to my mind when golf and art are combined...










Simpy highlight Mother Nature in all her glory.  Artistic and symbolic in spades.

[David_Tepper]

Ian A. -

Here are pics of A. Goldsworthy's latest 2 art installations in San Francisco. They are very close to the Presidio Golf Course.

http://www.presidio.gov/explore/Pages/andy-goldsworthy-spire-wood-line.aspx

DT

[Ian Andrew]

Mike,

I always felt that working outside what is considered normal exposes an architect to a miss on the very grandest of scales.

If they get it right, good for them, if they get it wrong, god help them.

[Ian Andrew]

David,

I like his work.
I also like the fun of following a meandering line
I'm also a big fan of labyrinths too

This made me laugh when I saw it, simple, brilliant, funny


Perhaps I'm just in need of a good laugh or something fun to think about right now.

[Ian Andrew]

Ian
Can you share some pictures of the nutmeg grinders?

[Brian_Ewen]

Desmond and Monty say hello.

[Forrest Richardson]

As someone who practice the environmental design and communication "art" for many years, I always find it interesting to communicate via my designs in golf. Interestingly, whenever these ideas do come to the surface, there are critics waiting to throw darts. OK with me. I get great enjoyment injecting humor and symbolism at times.

Is Desmond still participating here?

[Mac Plumart]

As someone who practice the environmental design and communication "art" for many years, I always find it interesting to communicate via my designs in golf. Interestingly, whenever these ideas do come to the surface, there are critics waiting to throw darts. OK with me. I ger=t great enjoyment injecting humor and symbolism at times.

Is Desmond still participating here?

Are you asking is Desmond Muirhead is still partipating on GCA.com?  Or am I misunderstanding you?

[Forrest Richardson]

We often channel Desmond here   

[Kirk Gill]

Mike,

I always felt that working outside what is considered normal exposes an architect to a miss on the very grandest of scales.

If they get it right, good for them, if they get it wrong, god help them.

Seems like this faces every person who engages in creative endeavor, but when you miss on a painting the next canvas awaits without too much cost or bother or "god help them." A book takes a little longer, pottery a little less long, but then you get into the kinds of projects where other people and more money and more risk is involved, like putting on a play, or making a movie, or........moving some dirt.

I don't always love those things where you have to see them from a helicopter to "get it." That was a lot more interesting back in the days when there weren't any helicopters, and the potential audience was aliens, or The Gods. Of course, I've never seen that "hello" bunker from ground level, so maybe it's only the Gods who were supposed to see it. Maybe that's who Mr. Muirhead was speaking to.

[Ian Andrew]

Kirk,

You usually don't need to be in the air.
All the symbols at Highlands Links (The Laird, The Dragon and Fireball and Mucklemouth Meg) can be seen from the ground.

If you look at the bunkers between the 5th and 10th at Jasper Park Lodge (and khow what they are) you can find the shapes of sea creatures.

But if you don't know that they are there, you'll miss them every time.
Perhaps that is the key to applying symbols, they should blend in with all the other work unless you know what to look for.

[David Harshbarger]

Ian,

There's enough artistry in creating a functional, enjoyable, compelling, sustainable golf course, expressed in the language of GCA, there's no obvious need to add on top a layer of symbolism.

That said, the examples you cite introduce a level of whimsy that seems perfectly at place in a course.  The risk, as with the Mickey Mouse green, and the hand bunker, is that the symbolic feature draws attention to the fact that the course may otherwise not offer much else to distinguish it.

Back when Curley/Schmidt were running the design a hole contest I put quite a bit of thought into this question.  The symbolic treatments I found most compelling were those that wove the symbol's larger meaning into the strategic intent of the hole.  So, for instance, a "tiger" hole would reward, direct, powerful play.  The "dragon" would reward indirect play, and punish the direct route. 

You could argue some of the template holes do this.  The redan challenges you to attack the fort.  The Sahara to cross the desert.  The link is a bit tenuous, but the idea is there.  Bring the symbolism into the golf strategy, not just as an adornment.

Dave

[Ian Andrew]

David,

I agree, symbolism is not for me either. I wrote the piece as part of a series exploring what new directions the profession could possibly take after naturalism. I certainly detest what Muirhead did, was amused by Thompson, but I'm always curious to see if I'm not looking at everything.

I did my first paper in LA on the use of reflections in the landscape. I discovered through the use of glass and lighting that I could get multiple images to merge into one focal point that varied from creepy to sublime depending on the experiment. So you can see why the impact of looking at myself at the Vietnam's Veterans Memorial moved me so much. She had found a way to make a greater impact by using a non-typical design element.

[Kirk Gill]

The Uffington horse is a favorite symbol of mine - there's a beauty to the design that I've always loved. It can be seen best from the air, but there are areas on the ground where it is visible as well. If you're familiar with it, my avatar might make sense !

Would any architect ever try to create a hole that specifically alluded to a landform existing elsewhere? That might work on some level.........I'm sure it's been done !