Cynthia Hron’s work seeks to encompass the social and cultural history of landscape and place, which has served as a catalyst for many drawings, sculptures, and public projects. Hron’s more recent venture into landscape architecture has led to a significant shift providing an opportunity to blend aesthetic interests with the function of landscape in the built environment.
“In 2016 I went back to school to study landscape architecture. My earlier work often looked to site history, the social and geophysical history of places, for inspiration. Now I find that the intersection between natural and built spaces, along with landscape function occupies my thinking. The series Terrain includes several subsets: Magic Mountain, considering the form and function of landfills; Piles; Gabions, and Preservation, looking at the details of natural materials and constructed forms in proximity.” – C.H.
Magic Mountain is a group of drawings inspired by the form and function of landfill spaces. Some landfills begin as a depression and are filled to a projected shape and height. Others are piles that grow outwardly into conical mounds reminiscent of a hilly landscape. Landfills are roughly pyramidal mounding forms of compressed layers built upon one another. As the layers compile the compression and decomposition of the waste products creates leaching fluids and off gassing. As landfills age they may be closed, capped, repurposed, or allowed to expand to accommodate increased waste disposal. Bulldozers move the refuse into layers, birds fly above the site, and tall fences provide some protection from flying debris. Wind carries odors of the decomposing waste on the site to the surrounding communities. The Magic Mountain series attempts to capture the atmosphere of the effluvial processes of landfill function.
“At the crossroads of art and landscape architecture I have found an expansive visual and conceptual vocabulary with which to experience the world.” – C.H.
About the Artist
Originally from California, Cynthia studied fine arts at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles where she earned a BFA degree, and later at California College of Art in Oakland, where she earned an MFA degree with high distinction. Her work seeks to encompass the social and cultural history of landscape and place, which has served as a catalyst for her many drawings, sculptures, and public projects. Her more recent venture into landscape architecture has led to an MLA degree from Penn State University. This significant shift has provided an opportunity to blend her aesthetic interests with landscape function in the natural and built environment.