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'Outsider Art'

'Outsider Art' is a name given to various types of art that operate outside the institution of mainstream artistic practice.

Colin Rhodes discusses this subject in Outsider Art. Spontaneous Alternatives, [i] with sections on self-taught artists, visionaries, the mentally ill, and child art.  A small section near the back under the subheading 'Environments' explores architectural sculptural and environmental works that are entirely overwhelming and excessive. They range from quite small domestic structures such as homes or gardens built out of bottles, painted rocks or junk, to gigantic structures extending across many acres of land.  Their construction methods are unconventional, more akin to sculpture than to architecture, frequently using found materials such as household objects or even text, and closer to an activity of compulsive collecting rather than functional buildings.  The works are generally constructed by a single person, sometimes over periods stretching to 30 years, and often in the face of disapproval and opposition from neighbours or state authorities. 

Palais Ideal.  By Ferdinand Cheval, built 1879 -1912. Image from Outsider Art. Spontaneous Alternatives. Colin Rhodes. Thames & Hudson. 2000. page 180

The earliest and perhaps most famous of these constructions is the "Palais Ideal" in south eastern France.  It was built between 1879 and 1912 by Ferdinand Cheval, a rural postman who worked on the Palais in his spare time and evenings.  It is said that he was inspired by the shape of a stone one day, started collecting stones in ever larger numbers, and eventually built with them.  This intricate, sprawling and fantastic structure was built out of concrete applied to a metal skeleton, without plans and simply evolving organically, in a variety of historical and mythological styles. [ii] His neighbours considered him eccentric but did not interfere with his activities, and eventually his palace received recognition from the likes of Pablo Picasso and Andre Breton, and became a well-known tourist attraction.  Cheval wished to be buried there but the French authorities forbade it, so he spent eight years building a mausoleum in the local churchyard, finishing it just prior to his death in 1924.  The Castle was declared a cultural landmark in 1969 and is now an officially protected building. [iii]

Watts Towers  Simon Rodia,  built 1921 – 1954.  Image from Outsider Art. Spontaneous Alternatives. Colin Rhodes. Thames & Hudson. 2000. page 182

A more recent but equally impressive structure was built by Simon Rodia in Watts, Los Angeles, between 1921 and 1954. Born in southern Italy, Rodia emigrated to America aged 12, and later worked in coal mines, quarries and construction sites, in telephone repairs and tile setting.  His structure is referred to as the ‘Watts Towers’, and consists of three towers, the tallest being almost 100 feet high, and fourteen other sculptural forms, all enclosed by decorated walls. He used similar materials to Cheval, creating a skeletal steel and concrete structure, inlaid with glass, shells and ceramic fragments.  He called it Nuestro Pueblo (‘our town’ or ‘our people’) and worked on it for 33 years before abruptly making the deeds over to a neighbour and disappearing.  Supporters of his work eventually tracked him down, but he absolutely refused to have anything further to do with it, saying rather frighteningly "don't you understand?  It's the end; there's nothing there." [iv]  Simon Rodia died in 1964 without seeing his towers again.  They were badly damaged in a 1994 earthquake but have since been restored, and are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and managed by the Los Angeles City Cultural Affairs Department. [v]

The Rock Garden     Nek Chand, built 1965 – Photograph, Josephine Regan, 1999.

The final example is the largest ‘outsider art’ construction currently in existence, which may still be a work in progress.  It is 'The Rock Garden' in north-west India close to Chandigarh, the city designed by French architect Le Corbusier.  I was there in the mid 1990’s and very much enjoyed my visit.

The Rock Garden was built by Nek Chand, who worked by day as a public roads inspector, and built his fantastic rock garden in his spare time and evenings.  He began building in 1965, at first simply constructing a small garden for himself, but gradually expanding over many acres of forest, on Government land.  The materials used were concrete, found objects, scrap and broken bathroom ceramics from the local tip, as well as from the demolished buildings of villages that were destroyed to make way for Chandigarh.  The Rock Garden overflows with large sequences of figures, including fantasy creations as well as animals and people, often decorated with ‘found’ mosaics.  He worked for many years in secret and illegally until his work was discovered by some government employees who happened to be clearing part of the forest.  But instead of destroying his work and prosecuting Chand, the authorities gave him a salary and a workforce of 50 labourers so that he could continue building full-time. [vi]  It now extends across 25 acres and receives over 5000 visitors per day; over 12 million people so far. The Nek Chand foundation, which currently maintains and builds the rock garden, describes it as ‘the greatest artistic achievement seen in India since the Taj Mahal’. [vii]

It would be interesting to know how much the Rock Garden has changed from the time when Chand was building it alone. The initial and illegal personal drive has become legitimised.  It is no doubt well resourced with labour and concrete – one wonders whether they now truck smashed toilets and fluorescent light tubes in from elsewhere, and whether the layout is now planed by a designer, or whether Nek Chand’s organic fantasy still drives the creation.  

There are many other examples of ‘outsider’ architecture and sculpture, most being of more modest proportions than the selection here, but all sharing their obsessive nature, the use of unorthodox materials or processes, the inclusion of found materials or objects, a level of early unacceptability by the local community, with a tendency to evolve organically over time.

It is hard to understand what it is that drives people to do this type of work, so completely excessive in every way.  The structures themselves speak of a driven and dedicated need to create, to build or to decorate.  The amount of time and energy dedicated to it, the years of evenings and weekends; the masses of found materials, the expense of concrete and steel, the invented sculptural processes, the potential and actual conflict with neighbours and state authorities.  One wonders whether the vision comes first, or if the building activity precedes design, or what other motivating factors might exist.   The 19^th Century psychologist William James argued that rather than believing that being sad may cause us to cry, we should instead believe that the body cries, and in response we feel sad. [viii]  Perhaps the body also occupies itself, and we justify our compulsions as a response.