Project: Coastline, 2020
Words: Nico Laan

My aim is to create images that exist in balance with their surrounding environment. To achieve that balance, I only use materials available there and then.

In the Coastline project, I only moved sand. I estimated the excavation at about four days. Unfortunately, the area flooded, and I had to wait weeks before it dried again. To my great surprise, the drawing proved quite intact—I could simply carry on right from where I left off.

The process of drawing, the effect of light and shadow, the influence of water, and change was at the heart of this project. I’ve come to see the environment as a process, a continuously changing one, often unveiling entirely new possibilities.

Don’t be disappointed if nature takes over.

Nico Laan is an independent designer and photographer, and a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and Haagse Hogeschool.

Project credits

Project by Nico Laan. Special thanks to Max Weel and Jan Fritz.

One Lesson Learned is a feature in which inspiring creatives share their recent project and an actionable lesson they’ve discovered while creating it.