The Outdoor Art of Oscar Lloveras
- by Cindy Ross

A very special artist from France, Oscar Lloveras, is gracing the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Festival this year with an installation of his dramatic sculpture.
In the fields behind the festival, your eyes find a sixty-foot pole with a hundred-foot fabric sculpture waving in the wind, an exquisite expression of nature and art. Adding to this magnificent backdrop, more installations, all by Oscar Lloveras, arise from the festival grounds, celebrating the pageantry of Pennsylvania's rolling farmlands and delighting visitors.
Lloveras has created installation sculptures all over the world, notably in Japan, France and Scotland. They are often laboriously made of handmade Japanese paper that Lloveras manufacturers himself, and stains using natural dyes and pigments extracted from the earth where the installation is placed. Here in Kempton, however, the artist did not have that luxury of time and so has worked with parachute fabric and tyvek to produce the work.
When Oscar Lloveras first took up temporary residence in the beautiful Kempton Valley a few months ago, he walked the land where his art would be installed, visiting it in all types of weather, all parts of the day. He needed to know where the water runs, what the soil is like, as well as what the art will look like from different angles in space. Lloveras also needed to know the history of the land and the town and the people who call this place home before he can make his art, for it must all connect. He met with the local people, got to know who they are, what is important to them and how they feel about the land, especially the farmers who very recently plowed and planted the open space the nature sculpture is installed on.
For the last few months, Lloveras has toiled over preliminary drawings, and pre-planned the design of the massive sculpture before even beginning work with the final fabric.
“I want viewers to have a feeling in their stomach when they see it. It must provoke something inside them, create a reaction, or else it is not art. It is merely a decoration."
The sculptures were created in a factory warehouse in Allentown, which ironically, was utilized by a parachute factory. Warehouse owner, George Haddad, a long time fan of the festival, donated the space.
The finished installations are hung in the air by strong marine ropes suspended on 60-foot poles, donated by Met-Ed First Energy Corporation. Keith McKeever arranged for a pole installation practice day for his rookie workers. Each pole is set eight feet in the ground.
In addition to the work created for our event, Lloveras will show another installation that he constructed for an exhibition in Paris and Tokyo for festival visitors to enjoy.

We are fortunate to have Lloveras's art be a memorable addition to the festival, thanks to the festival's Director of Art & Entertainment, Janice Eshelman. She met Lloveras at a retreat two years ago and knew he would be a perfect fit for the festival. Protecting the natural landscape has always been a large part of the festival's mission, so celebrating nature and the earth and this space here where we are so fortunate to share the festival, makes perfect sense.