Dimensions: image: 314 x 476 mm
Copyright: © Richard Long | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Richard Long's "England," a photograph of a field marked with a walked line. It's so subtle, almost imperceptible. What should we make of such a minimal intervention? Curator: It's a potent disruption. Long’s act of walking, a simple, everyday gesture, becomes a radical claiming of space. Think about whose bodies are historically allowed to move freely across the English landscape, and who are not. How does this relate to land ownership and access? Editor: So, it’s about questioning privilege and access? Curator: Exactly. Long highlights the power dynamics embedded in our relationship with nature and prompts us to consider the social and political implications of our presence in the environment. Editor: I never thought about it that way. It’s much more charged than it appears at first glance.
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Richard Long leaves the studio to create work in outdoor settings. During walks he subtly marks his presence. In the works represented here, he records a temporary impression on turf and picks daisies along two lines to form an ‘X’. These interventions won’t last, but are made permanent in the form of photographs. ‘These works are of the place, they are a rearrangement of it and in time will be reabsorbed by it. I hope to make work for the land, not against it,’ he said. Gallery label, September 2023
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