Long- A line made by walking Flashcards
date
1967
medium
Walking Sculpture documented by photograph
(gelatin silver print on paper and graphite on board)
what is longs art founded on
Long’s work is founded on the act/experience of walking and the art of walking (walking as idea, concept, discourse).
walking is a religious philosophical dimension for him
In Long’s art the walk is the most direct, immediate and practical way of interacting with nature.
what does this peice show
It shows a path made by the artist’s feet as he has walked back and forth in a straight line.
Simple, direct means of communication - a straight line running across a grass field: the result of repeating his steps. He then photographed the work.
importance of this work in longs oeuvre
his first important walk-work
process
-Long took a train out of London’s Waterloo station going south west
As soon as the train reached open countryside he got off at the nearest station and found a suitable field.
*Arbitrarily selected stretch of ground – this is a field in Wiltshire.
*He walked back and forth repeatedly for a long period of time, until the flattened grass caught the sunlight and became visible as a line (like drawing with his feet)
*He took a photograph and then got back on a train to go home.
*This solitary walk was captioned, recording the time and place of the hike.
*Process – a lot of physical exertion
location
Wiltshire. (Relatively local and simple – whereas much of his work is about far-off lands and heroic distance.)
what does this work explore relationships between
*this work explores relationships between time, travel, distance, ritual, geography, measurement and movement.
how is this work about transcience
*Long enacted a specific temporal activity that scarcely left a mark – the work is about transience and the lack of permanence itself
*This is a temporary sculpture which assimilated back to nature as soon as the artist left
importance of using his body to create this work
By using his body to make a performative relationship with an organic environment, Long is emphasising a primal and symbolic link with the earth.
medium of photograph with text
*This photograph is direct, rough and shot in black and white.
the art isnt the photo its the sculpture
The aim was to make simple, realistic images of the artwork that looked as documentary as possible Physical evidence
RESTRICTIVE
-the viewer is not offered a range of viewpoints of a work and certain aesthetic choices have been made
-We, the viewer, are standing on the line, as if we have made it.
COMPOSITION
oThere is a high horizon line, and the line and grass take up most of the frame
oThe open composition makes it evoke an infinite line
oThere is a high horizon line, and the line and grass take up most of the frame
*Simple and straightforward
TEXT
The words are not poetry nor prose, they provide sufficient information for the viewer to imagine the circumstances which led to their creation.
SCALE
*The scale of the works is in relation to the human form.
TEXTURE
*The earth of the landscape provides tone, texture & shape.
GEOMETRIC FORMS
*Simple abstract formal geometry of straight lines
*His works are considered and structured which juxtaposes with the organic shapes seen in the surroundings and the chance of nature
WHY DOES LONG FINDBRITISH LANDSCAPE INTERESTING (QUOTE)
*‘I would say that for a start, the British landscape is interesting. It is my home landscape, and I find it very rich. Even the footpaths and lanes of the West Country.’
HOW DOES THIS LINK TO BRITISH TRADITION
*Working directly with nature and the landscape is very British in its tradition, and harks back to 18th Century English Landscape Architect Capability Brown and tradition of Landscape gardening.
WHAT WAS HIS EDUCATION AT THE TIME OF CREATION
*When he made A Line Made by Walking (1967), he was still a student at London’s Saint Martin’s School of Art and was drawing on Conceptual Art’s strategies: using photographs to substitute physical experience.
HOW IS IT INSPIRED BY THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY
*This sculpture links to his interest from art school in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Despite the formal simplicity of Long’s work, his use of walking as a medium had revolutionary implications as it now has time as a fourth dimension, as well as the potential scale of distance. The photograph also collapses time past and time present.
WHAT DOES LONG SAY ABOUT NOT ALL WALKING BEING ART
*Although Long doesn’t claim to be a conceptual artist he did state that ‘not all walking is art.’ A walk only becomes art when it is conceived as art. The conception of the walk, made before the walk, is crucial. Long also said, though, that ‘anything an artist makes, is art’ but adds ‘not everyone is an artist.’
HOW DOES THIS ACKNOWLEDGE THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF WALKING
*Long acknowledges the cultural history of walking. “
o Christian = Pilgrim’s Way
o Taoist – the Great Way
o Zen Buddhist – Heavenly way mushin
o Contemporary long-distance walkers (his parents met rambling)
The ephemeral nature of the path made by his feet harks to Japanese rock gardens which are newly raked each morning.
HOW DOES THIS WORK RELATE TO HIS EARLIER SCULPTURE
*We can see how this sculpture relates to his earlier sculpture of the 1964 snowball, made by rolling and walking.
LINKS TO RPMANTICISM
*Although Long downplays links with Romanticism he describes landscape in emotional terms and looks to make art in remote areas which are about power and contemplation.
DESPITE NOT BEING A CONCEPTUAL ARTIST WHAT IS LONGS HISTORY WITH CONCEPTUAL WORK
- Conceptual art was the back drop to his artistic development, where the art’s premium was based on the idea. Long would argue that the realisation of his work was not secondary but primary, and thus his work wasn’t conceptual. Nevertheless, A Line Made by Walking first appears as a photograph in the portfolio of ‘Conceptual Art’ that Barry Flanagan took to New York in 1969 to show that, independent of American Influences, a conceptual approach had already been adopted by a number of British Artists.
WHAT ART GENRE CAN WE LINK THIS TO
*The simplicity of his art can be linked to Minimalism, and the artist’s corporeal presence
INFLUENCE OF JOHN CAGE
*Long heard the experimental composer John Cage give a lecture in the 1960s about chance and eccentric lateral thinking, who was interested in absence/presence.
