Diane Cardwell, author of “Rockaway: Surfing Headlong Into a New Life,” spoke to HuffPost about catching waves and surviving Hurricane Sandy.

Four years after Superstorm Sandy, Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse is reminding us that the damage to New York's Rockaway Beach is still very real.

The biggest change we are seeing today with the contemporary artist's approach to the landscape is how they relate this time-tested type to some sort of political statement, while other artists see it as a way to express the land's power and beauty.