DAY 278

UNEXPECTED ART FORMS

Tractor as Pencil

THE MUNDI MAN OF THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

Ando’s immense depiction of an early Australian pioneer can only properly be viewed from the air. The brim of the figure’s hat alone is a mile across. Each line of the image is 10 meters wide. (For some reason, I picture Paul Hogan leaning against a muddied Jeep, in costume as “Crocodile Dundee,” dismissing some poor amateur’s notepad sketch: “That’s not a drawing...this is a drawing.”)

The image was etched into the soil of the Mundi Mundi Plains of Australia, just outside the city of Broken Hill, New South Wales. Ando’s stylus was a tractor, modified for the task. Tines from a piece of farm equipment were attached to the vehicle to create furrows in the soil; it was outfitted with hydraulics in order to avoid disturbing animal and bird habitats. Over the course of nine months, Ando and his Canadian assistant, Christine Righetti, etched the image into more than 4 million square meters of outback soil.

The Australian artist has been painting since he was 4 years old. He states that while he has painted landscapes on canvas several times, “This is the first time I have used the landscape as my canvas!” —DJS