Ephemeral Netting (Deia Forest) 1975

Constantin Flondor made 'Ephemeral Netting (Deia Forest)' with string, in the forest, and at night. Imagine him there, between the trees, pulling the string taut, tying it around the trunks, making a web-like grid of lines. I wonder if he was thinking about the spiderwebs that might already be there, or the way a forest is already a kind of grid, with its vertical trunks and horizontal branches? The material is so simple – just string – but the effect is magical. It catches the light in a way that makes it seem almost electric, like a drawing in space. It's so physical. It makes me think about Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings but in nature. Like other artists, Flondor is in conversation with them, making his own contribution, asking what it means to make marks, to create form, in a world that is already full of forms. Ultimately the work seems to suggest that art is an ongoing process of discovery, inviting us to see the world in new ways.