Dimensions: image: 270 x 305 mm
Copyright: © Richard Long | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Richard Long’s "Turf Circle," a photograph of a land intervention in England, created in 1966. The simplicity is striking, it is literally just a circle of flattened grass. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Well, let's consider the labor involved. Long physically walked this circle, impacting the earth. It challenges traditional sculpture, doesn't it? There's no chiseling or casting, just repetitive action. The photograph then becomes a record, a form of consumption itself. Editor: So, the artwork isn't just the circle, but also the photograph documenting the labor of creating it? Curator: Exactly. The photograph circulates, embodying the Land Art movement's shift away from gallery spaces. It's about the material process and how we engage with the land as a resource. Editor: That reframes my understanding entirely. Thanks! Curator: Indeed, it's a departure from traditional notions of art.
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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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