In Tate Liverpool
Ideas Depot: Ideas Depot
Free entry- Artist
- Richard Long born 1945
- Medium
- Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper and graphite on board
- Dimensions
- Image: 375 x 324 mm
framed: 623 x 826 x 26 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1976
- Reference
- P07149
Display caption
This formative piece was made on one of Long’s journeys to St Martin’s from his home in Bristol. Between hitchhiking lifts, he stopped in a field in Wiltshire where he walked backwards and forwards until the flattened turf caught the sunlight and became visible as a line. He photographed this work, and recorded his physical interventions within the landscape.
Although this artwork underplays the artist’s corporeal presence, it anticipates a widespread interest in performative art practice. This piece demonstrates how Long had already found a visual language for his lifelong concerns with impermanence, motion and relativity.
Gallery label, May 2007
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