Lynne Hull interview: Heart and soul (2009)
artdesigncafé | café library | Published 19 November 2011
This interview was done in 2009 and is also published in The New Earthwork: Art, Action, Agency (2011), edited by Twylene Moyer and Glenn Harper, with the title "Trans-species art: A conversation with Lynne Hull" published by University of Washington Press and the International Sculpture Center, publisher of Sculpture magazine.
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Lynne Hull. Twist (detail), (1993). Wood, 30 ft. high. Click to see a 2011 Twist update.
Lynne Hull specializes in sculpture that doubles as wildlife habitat. She has made safe roosts for raptors in Wyoming, butterfly hibernation sculptures in Montana, salmon-spawning pools in Ireland, and nesting sites for wild ducks and geese in the Grizedale Forest Sculpture Park in England. Carved hydroglyphs capture water for desert wildlife, and floating art islands offer an inviting habitat for all sorts of aquatic species, from turtles and frogs to ducks and herons, to songbirds, swallows, and insects.
For over 35 years, Hull’s mixed-media work has focused on ecological realities in the American West and at sites around the world. Her “clients” include hawks, eagles, bats, beavers, spider monkeys, and migratory birds traveling from Canada to Latin America, but she pays attention to even the smallest creatures. For instance, in 1993, she made perches for frogs, toads, and newts who were having trouble climbing out of an abandoned swimming pool. She placed rocks for shelter and basking, planted aquatic vegetation, created a driftwood island, and wittily titled this new world The uglies lovely.
Lynne Hull has worked with a number of agencies over the course of her career, including state wildlife departments, the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service. She has completed projects in 14 states and eight countries. The exiled oxbow (1995–97), created in collaboration with the Salina, Kansas, Parks Department, the Arts and Humanities Commission, and the Land Institute, features native prairie and wetlands restoration along a bend in the Smoky Hill River, where the river was cut off from the main channel by massive flood dikes. In 2008, she finished East Drake pondworks, a public art commission featuring 16 sculptures in the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, north of Denver, where she lives and works.
R. J. Preece: What inspired you to make art focused on wildlife?
Lynne Hull: I suppose it was from living so long in Wyoming. I lived there on and off for 30 years. Wildlife species are very visible there, but the traditional audience for contemporary art— humans— is very small. That’s how I developed “trans-species art.”
R. J. Preece: What keeps you coming back to art focused on environmental concerns?
Lynne Hull: I am convinced that the loss of biodiversity is the most important survival challenge that we face as a species. And I believe that artistic creativity can be applied to real world problems and have an effect on urgent social and environmental issues. I am increasingly aware that, in order to survive, other species need a change in human values and attitudes. I hope that my work offers models for more equitable solutions.
Lynne Hull interview: 1 | 2 | 3
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