“Walk On” is the first exhibition
to concentrate exclusively on how artists have integrated the simple act of
taking a journey on foot into their art work. The works on display cover a huge
range of media, date from the late 1960s to the present day and involve almost
40 artists or art collectives, ranging from well-known figures such as Hamish Fulton,
Bruce Nauman and Richard Long to (hitherto) relatively unknown artists. The
exhibition has been touring the country since March 2013 and will ultimately
take in five venues, finishing in Plymouth in December 2014.
My partner Helen has been walking
the New River Lea as part of a project for her fine art degree. We are both
keen walkers, so I was persuaded to take her to Birmingham to view this
exhibition. I was hazily aware of the work of Hamish Fulton (a long distance
walker, who regards walking itself as the work of art) and Richard Long (see
below), but was amazed at how many people integrate the healthy pursuit of
walking into their work. There is something for everyone here, from paintings
to photographs to video to installations and much more besides. Inevitably,
(relatively) new technology, in particular GPS navigational assistance, is
incorporated into some of the more recent work, with movement graphs, presented
in various formats, replacing photographs whilst CCTV cameras are employed to
track the actions of walking artists. Just as some of the art work hit the mark
for me, other works left me either cold or confused (or both). Rather than
trying to comment further on the exhibition as a whole I will concentrate on
the work of four artists whose work left a mark on me, in one way or another.
Tracy Hanna: “Hill Walker, 2009”
Tracy Hanna works with video
projection and 3-dimensional media. Her exhibit, which consists of a 58-second
video loop, apparently showing a walker or mountaineer climbing up a snowy
mountain (actually a cone-shaped bag of plaster on the floor of one of the
exhibition rooms) would surely have won the award for the most popular exhibit
on display. Children in particular were transfixed by the projection and I was
reminded of some of the sculpture of Anish Kapoor, which has accessible,
universal appeal. Whilst the exhibition notes refer to the exhibit questioning
man’s motivation to walk, climb, explore and conquer as being a pathology
(which may be true) I view “Hill Walker, 2009” as being a novel and imaginative
way to combine media to produce a new art form. I look forward to seeing more
of her work.
Richard Long: “A Line in the Himalayas”,1975
Long is well known for his
practice of leaving marks and traces on the landscape, either by using his own
footprints or by constructing basic shapes using natural materials (in this
case, a line of pale stones amongst darker rubble). His “land art”
interventions are intended to be simple and/or temporary and not to have any
lasting effect on the environment. This work was produced in 1975 (although the
large photographic print was produced much later). Co-incidentally or
deliberately, a line of stones produces a photographic lead-in line to a
Himalayan mountain in the background: perhaps an idea that could be exploited
by keen landscape photographers to strengthen the composition of their images?
The photograph commands our attention mainly because of the beauty of the
surroundings. In 1975 very few people could afford to visit the Himalayas and,
of those who could, few would be fit enough to reach the place where Long
constructed his land art. What does this tell us about the artist? Is he
showing off, proving that he can produce his work in the most inhospitable
places, or is he trying to demonstrate how insignificant his art is when
compared with the mighty vista surrounding it? This exhibit is characteristic
of Long’s work in that it raises far more questions than it answers.
Dan Holdsworth: “Blackout 10, 2009” (see image below)
Holdsworth’s huge image, which
was presented in a light-box, is actually a negative depicting the landscape of
southern Iceland and was taken on an arduous walk into a glacier where ice and
volcanic ash co-exist. Knowing that this is a negative, we can appreciate that
the foreground depicts black volcanic dust. Holdsworth has reversed the image
to make the glacier appear more impenetrable, more immense than it actually is.
The sting in the tail is that, due to the effects of global warming, the
glacier is actually rapidly melting and will have disappeared within a
generation. Walking and photography have been combined here to convey an
environmental message, although I’m not sure that this message will reach
influential recipients.
Dan Holdsworth: “Blackout 10, 2009”
Sophie Calle: “Suite Vénitienne”,
1980
Sophie Calle is a French
‘conceptual artist’. This work, presented as a diary with accompanying standard
monochrome photographic prints, was displayed on two walls of the main
exhibition space and fascinated me. It tells us how Calle meets a man in Paris
who tells her that he will shortly be going to Venice. Calle decides, for no
obvious reason, to visit Venice at the same time, to locate the man and then to
follow him. The diary casts her in the role of a spy or a private detective,
although we learn little about the motivation for her action (other than to
create a conceptual work of art!). Somehow, despite my general disdain for her
actions, I became drawn in to the story and spent a good half hour reading her
diary and looking at the photographs. The photographs were typical “throwaway”,
badly composed shots, but somehow they added quite a lot to the story, which
was well-written. I could appreciate that I was essentially reading and viewing
a work of art, whilst still being absorbed by her story. Other covert and more
open acts of surveillance were featured in the exhibition but, despite this
being the oldest, it was (at least for me) by far the most effective.
Despite some misgivings
beforehand, the exhibition was well worth the long journey to view it. I
enjoyed seeing the different approaches used to produce “walking art” and came
away with a few ideas for my own photographic work. Despite its age the work by
Sophie Calle stood out as being the most interesting on display.
Learning Points,
Future Work and References:
Sophie Calle’s work presents an
interesting alternative to the standard photo story. Whilst the real strength
of her art lies within the text, the almost throwaway prints, which have no
photographic value whatsoever, are nevertheless an important part of the story.
What this tells me is that sometimes the subject matter of a photograph is
sufficient to justify its existence, no matter how badly exposed or composed
the photograph is. Woe betide me if I use this as an excuse for my OCA
assignment work, however!
Sophie Calle (Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Calle
Sophie Calle interview (text): http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/23/sophie-calle
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