Nils Udo- born 1937 is a Bavarian artist who began in the 1960s as a painter on traditional surfaces in Paris. He then moved to his home country in Bavaria and began planted creations, putting them in Nature's hands to develop, and eventually disappear. As his work evolved into more ephemeral creations, he began to photograph them, to document and share his art. His practice oscillates between planned installations, some urban, and extemporaneous use of found natural materials after he has immersed himself in a place and season. I guess my favourite thing about Nils' work is the way he writes. His writing is so confusing and passionate, growing up in an area surrounded by nature I found I related most to his art via shared experiences with nature. Light changes everything. Here is a piece of his for your enjoyment: 1972: "The sensations are omnipresent. Being a realist I just need to pick them up and release them from their anonymity. Utopias are under every rock, on every leaf, behind every tree, in the clouds and in the wind. The sun’s course on the days of equinox; the tiny habitat of a beetle on a lime leaf; the pointed maple’s red fire; the scent of herbs in a wooded gorge; a frog’s croak in the water lentils; the primrose’s perfume on the banks of a mountain creek; animal traces in the snow; the remaining trajectory of a bird darting through the woods; a gust of wind in a tree; the dancing of light on leaves; the endlessly complex relationship of branch to branch, twig to twig, leaf to leaf. Everything perceivable through human senses takes part. Natural space experienced through hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching. By means of the smallest possible interventions, living, three-dimensional natural space is re-organized, unlocked and put under tension. Reorganization, of course for a finite period of time. One day, the intervention is wiped away, undone by nature without leaving a trace." - Nils Udo
