The Mechanical Riverfront Kingdom

In recent decades, indoor “installation art” has become quite prevalent in the contemporary art mainstream.  Generally, for a variety of reasons – often including commodity issues – outdoor installations (or “art environments”) have remained in the domain of ‘outsider’ or self-taught artists.  Clark Ashton’s Druid Hill is something of a hybrid exception.  Although he had no formal art training when he started creating this sculptural environment, he later earned an MFA from Georgia State University.  With Druid Hill, Clark has worked independently of mainstream art institutions to create an historically-informed, site-specific earthworks conceptual program that’s publicly accessible – both physically and philosophically.  He intends to establish Druid Hill as an inviting long-term “found earthwork” public destination landmark that embodies and reveals multiple layers of cultural and geological history to all visitors.  From clarkashton.org:

“The geologic formation of Druid Hill is the result of upheaval and erosion characteristic of the Appalachian
chain to which it is related. Rising only 28’ in elevation from corner to corner, its evolution to geographic
feature is a result of its profound role as a catalyst in the development of a unique cultural site and its novel and
distinctive use as an artistic medium. In November of 1984, John Clark Ashton Cornelius Farmer “found”
the hill just as it is today, in the manner one might find a ribbon for your hair. He purchased it, and then he
used it as an integral element, as a “found earthwork” in the creation of a singular cohesive inter-related
body of artwork, The Mechanical Riverfront Kingdom, that presents a history of humankind from its
mythical divine origins to its ultimate self-inflicted demise and beyond, from Adam to the Ascension
Machine. As a hybrid of found object and land art, Druid Hill with its Commuter Gallery appropriates the
psyches of passers-by as additional artistic media creating a hereforto unrealized, unforseen, unmistakeaby
Southern symbiosis of ritual, sculpture, soil, and soul”

Clark Ashton welcome visitors, and offers on-site overnight accommodations, but requests prior contact.

See also:

• Art Environments - Southeast | Photos by Fred Scruton
• Art Environments - Overview | Photos by Fred Scruton

External resources:

• clarkashton.org
• Druid Hill SPACES page
• Atlanta Magazine article