Walking_Essay

Chao Hoa Chea P30026 Design Literature Review Date of Submission_3 December 2014

Contents 1

Preface

8

Introduction

11

A Line Made by Walking

16

Sahara Stone Circle

20

A Hundred Mile Walk

23

Conclusion

25

Bibliography

“When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back, the more one comes to know them, the more one seeds them with invisible crop of memories and associations that will be waiting for you when you come back, while new places offer new thoughts, new possibilities. Exploring the word is one of the best way exploring the mind, and walking a both terrains�

(Solnit, 1992, p.13)

Preface Walking is a primal act of transport, a means of travel from one place to another. The act of walking is therefore primitive and its history goes back as far as the beginning of mankind (Solnit, 1992, p.14).

Therefore, walking is an intricate subject to address and by examining walking as a conscious cultural act rather than a means to travel from one place to another we could limit the extent of walking, and take us back to 18th century writer, philosopher and composer Jean Jacque Rousseau (Solnit, 1992, p.15). Using walking as a conscious cultural act, Rousseau often carries out solitary walks in the natural landscape as a way to mediate, to free the mind from the clutters of the daily life. He expressed that through walking he is able to seek pleasures and happiness, as it allows him to centre his thoughts upon himself and has a greater selfunderstanding while enhancing his own awareness to the natural elements ( Rousseau, 1992).

Similar view towards the act of walking as a way to search for a greater self-understanding could also be seen in our long tradition of pilgrimage, when one undertakes a voyage, typically to a shrine, to search for the moral or spiritual significant, “a quest for the soul well-being� (Davidson, Dunn, 1996, p.98). However, not all pilgrims walk on these voyages for religious reason, some walk these long journeys simply for their own personal goals and ambitions, to be able to experience different cultures, landscapes, meeting new people and see new things, a journey where they can become closer to nature and the land they walk on (Estevez, 2010 ). Walking then constitutes a wide range of

meanings and significance across different cultures and places, meanings such as physical, primitive, practical and sacred. It is a universal act which shaped our senses and our experiences of a place (Malpas, 1995,p.127).

The following discourse of writing is intended to draw attention to the act of walking, and the potential of using walking as a design method through the studies of an artist and sculpture Richard Long, who is prominent in making artworks through walking.

His love and passion for walking has associated him with other roles such as a traveller, explorer, pilgrim, hill walker (Long, 1998.p7). His artworks are founded from the act of walking, ranging from the works he created in the barren landscape to the works which he presents in the gallery, thus the characteristics and experience of his walks could be seen throughout his works (Malpas, 1999, p86).

This literature review will set out to outline three of Long’s projects; A line made by walking, Stone circle in Sahara desert, and A hundred Mile Walk, in order to delve deeper into how walking has inspired him in making his artwork. In addition an investigation in Long’s uses of forms and materials will also be presented alongside to further emphasize the influences of Long’s walk in his design philosophy.

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Richard Long “I always have the feeling of being a slightly changed person after a walk than I was before�

(Malpas, 1999, p.150)

Figure 1

4

A Line of Sticks in Somerset 1974

Figure 2

Turf Circle 1966

Figure 3

6

Silence Circle Big Bend Texas 1990

Figure 4

Circle in Alaska 1977

Born in 1945, Long showed great passions and affection for art and nature in the early age, he started to develop a radical approach in designing artworks and sculptures involving with nature and landscape during his Study at West England College 1962-1965. However he was forced to leave by the school authorities because of the unconventional and radicality of his work, Snowball Track show in figure 5, which was created simply by rolling a snow ball in field and then photographing the track it left behind (o’Hagan, 2009). Despite the dismissal of West England College, Long was still enthusiastic in making radical, innovative artworks and enrolled in St Martin School of Art 1966-68 (Tufnell, 2006, p,22).

With the encouragement and support of the school, Long was able to continue his exploration in making new avant-garde landscape arts and sculptures, however, contrary to his fellow students who were interested in making arts and sculptures out of high tech materials such as metal, fiberglass, plaster etc, Long was interested in using natural materials such as stone, mud, stick, grass, water, the natural elements, that existed out in the landscape (Wroe,2003).

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With the freedom to explore and experiment, Long was able to be much more inventive and innovative in making new artworks, rather to be confined by the four white walls of the studio space, Long ‘s intention was to relocate his art-works out from the studio spaces, and into the landscape itself (Wallis, Britain and Long, 2009, p28). The idea of using landscape as a place to make his art works and also for his artworks to exist in have profoundly influenced Long’s approach in making artworks, and perhaps the reasons that have inspired Long to make art through the walking (malpas, 1999, p.86).

Figure 5

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Snowball Track Bristol 1964

In 1967 while still studying at St Martin School, Long made his first important work “A Line Made By Walking”, where his ideas of using nature and walking to create an art work was first realized in this project shown in figure 6 (Tufnell, 2007, p.39). The artwork is simply created by the act of walking repeatedly up and down the field in a straight line, until the weight of his footstep slowly worn a visible straight path across the face of the grass field through time (Ives, 2002) This artwork demonstrates Long’s ideas of making art in the landscape through the act of waking in a straight line, he describes his intentions of using the straight line because of its purity and simplicity, moreover he sees the line as a universal language where different cultures and places share the similar perceptions toward it (Malpas, 1999, p.134).

He describe how, in June 1967, he took a train from London Waterloo station, heading out toward the southeast, he disembarked after 20 miles and found a featureless field to be the location where he could execute the artwork (Burgon, 2010) thus demonstrated Long’s ideals of making this artwork was first realized and that the choices of the location of the artwork was to follow (Wallis, Britain and Long, 2009, p40).

Through walking, Long is able to engage with the landscape mentally and physically, the work he creates reflect his relations with nature through the movement of his own body. Long uses himself as a measuring instrument of time, scale, space and distance as he repeatedly and continuously walked up and down until the visible straight line appears on the surface of the field; the artwork he created consisted time as the fourth dimension

(Wallis, Britain and Long, 2009, p.45). Furthermore the visible path created from the trodden grass will eventually disappear as the grass will grow back to its previous state and once again the field became as a whole where the traces of the straight line and Richard Long’s presence faded out (Tufnell, 2006, p.31).

This illustrates Long’s intentions for his artwork as an un-obstructive and transient object, which exist through time and space, an art work that is in tune with nature (Malpas, 1995, p.86), Perhaps this explains why he would like the location of this art work to remain anonymous, undisturbed by the public just like nature is barely disturbed by his art, thus records of the art work is presented with little information about the location of the work (Long,1998,p.12).

Long captured the artwork in a black and white photograph at eye level using a simple and direct shot as he wanted the photography work to share the same simplicity and clarity as his walks (Malpas, 1999, p.110). This new radical way of making art, using natural elements itself combining the act of walking allows a fresh and a new approach toward the ideas of making artworks and sculpture. It also marks the beginning of Long’s life long career of making art through walking (Tufnell, 2007, p.39).

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Figure 6

A Line Made By Walking 1967

Long sees walking as an act that occupies in time and space, it is a continual process of body movements from one place to another through time, which enable him to see, touch, experience the land he walks on, therefore Long often expresses his art with the idea of continuity and the process of making the art, rather than the final artwork itself (Ives, 2002, p.30).

Working in the expanded space of the real world, using walking as a way to make art, Long describes: My work has become a simple metaphor of life. A figure walking down his road, making his mark, it is an affirmation of my human scale and senses, how far I walk, what stone I pick up, my particular experience.(cite in Tufnell, p.31)

The artwork is then essentially the reflection of his experience of a particular walk in a particular place, therefore the materials he uses are natural materials which can be founded on his walks, such as stone, wood, water, mud, as a way of describing the characteristics of a place. Furthermore these are common materials which exist everywhere, thus it is convenient and practical for Long in the making of his art (Manchester, 2005).

This perhaps id one of reasons why Long pre-planned most of his walks, such as the routes he undertakes, the rivers he cross and the jagged path he negotiates, as these will play a role in determining the artwork he is going to make (Long, 1994, p.76). Moreover Long also pre-planned the type of walks that he does, which are corresponding to the quality of the landscape, such as a straight walk would be ideal to carry out on the flat open landscape, where as in the mountain regions, straight walks would be impractical 14

(Malpas, 1999, p.108).

The quality of being practical is an important factor in Long’s walk as well as in his use of materials, Long’s walks and his choice of routes described

by Wallis as simple and straight forward, that frequently centre on geographic and topographic features such as the rivers and coast lines, a logical choice as water is an essential part in the course of his walk (Wallis, Britain, Long, 2009, P.31).

An example of this can be seen in Long’s Sahara desert walk, where the routes of the walk were planned according to the available water sources throughout the journey (Long, 1994, p.249).

Illustrated in figure 7, titled Sahara circle 1988.

Figure 7

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Sahara Cricle 1988

The sculpture depicts a circle of rocks sitting in the barren desert created by a simple means of clearing out the debris of rocks in a circular shape which reveals the yellow surface of the desert, as well as the act of accumulating, organizing and rearranging of the larger rocks to form the perimeter of the circle (Manchester. 2005). Long approaches in the making of this sculpture in some extent similar to “A Line Made By Walking”, as both constitute Long’s physical engagement with the landscape, through the act of accumulating and rearranging rocks in a circle, touching and moving the individual stone with his hands, Long was able to introduce his own human scale, dimension, and experience in the art he creates (Long and Gallery, 2011, P.20).

Long photographed the circle of rocks at the centre of the image, directly align with the finger rock that sits at the horizon, this in a way indicates an dialogue exchange between his artwork and the deserts. In addition, the sculpture also implies the notion of his presence, his traces, marks and relation with the landscape (Malpas, 1999, p.103).

When he was asked by Fulton why he uses circle in the artwork? He simply replied: “Nature is universal and circle represent the ideas of universal, which is belongs to everyone from every culture” (Long, Fulton, Seymour, cork and Gallery, 1994, p.251)

Long sees circles as being beautiful because of it simple geometry; it is powerful but also natural and abstract. Furthermore circle represents the fundamental element of nature and allows Long to express his art works as pure and authentic

(Long, 1998, p.40). Other motifs associated with circle which Malpas has described such as the primeval symbol of eternity, cycle, time, rebirth as well as unity, wholeness and infinity (Malpas, 1999, p.55).

However, Long describes that his intention for his artwork doesn’t lie within the form he uses, such as circles and lines, but the place he chose to put them in and material he uses, in order to demonstrate the essence of his experience (Long, Fuchs, 1986, p.44).

When he was asked why he used stones in his sculptures? And if it had any significant meanings He replied.

I used stone because I like stone, or because they are easy to find, without being anything special, so common that you can find them anywhere, again it’s a practical aspect. I don’t have to have a special skill or talent for using them. I don’t have to bring anything to them. I can just make a sculpture (Long, Fulton, Seymour, cork and Gallery, 1994, p.45) This further emphases the practical motif of the use of the materials in Long’s work, in a simple and straight forward way which reflect his artwork as real and authentic object, rather than illusory or conceptual. He describes his works is about “real stone, real time, and real action” (Long, Fulton, Seymour, cork and Gallery, 1994, p.8).

His Loves for authentic, natural raw materials can be seen throughout his oeuvre, he felt affectionate to all natural materials especially stone as he describes stone as easy to use, where one doesn’t require a specific knowledge or talent to work with them, (Long, Fulton, Seymour, cork and Gallery, 1994, p.45).

Despite the repetitive use of the same materials such as stones and woods, grass, mud in the making of 18

Long’s artworks such as lines and circles, Malpas depicts Long’s art as individually different from one and another. To begin with, Malpas talks about the difference in time, locations and weathers during the making of the work, furthermore the material used by Long are also different in terms of its sizes and shapes. Moreover, Long himself is also different in physicality and mentality, thus the artworks he create may have a similar appearance, but they are all different between one and another (Malpas, 1999, p.109).

“Places give me energy for ideas, I think I get energy from being out on the road, having the world going past me”

(Long, Fulton, Seymour, cork and Gallery, 1994, p.20)

“I always have the feeling being slightly changed person after a walk than I was before”

(Malpas, 1994, p.150)

Making art and walking plays an important role in Long’s life, they exist parallel, the walk is the reality of his art while the sculpture is the residue of his walk and the essence of his experience (Malpas, 1999, p.150). Besides using photographs to record his walking experience, he also uses other media such as Map and Text words. Most often he uses maps simply as a way to illustrate the length and location of the walk, while the text works are uses to describe a small part of the walk, to feed the viewer imagination (Malpas, 1999, p.118). An example of this can be seen in his A Hundred Mile Walk shown in figure 8.

“A Hundred Mile walk” is an artwork consisting of three parts; a map, a photograph, and text which is presented by Long in a simple and straight forward way. For the map he simply overlaid the Dartmoor map with a black circle to give an indication of his walking routes and the location of the walk while the photograph on the bottom right presents the visual appearance and characteristics of the place he walks on, lastly the seven lines of text written by Long are to imply the duration and a snippet of his walking experience (Wilson, Gallery, 1990, p.270).

The seven line of text are subtle descriptions of all natural phenomenon as well as Long’s own activities.

It is an indication of the encountered events and duration of his walk rather than the descriptions of the landscape itself (Malpas, 1999, p.115). The solitary and continuity of Long’s walks in a preplanned circular route throughout the course of seven days is reflected in his seven lines of text.

His awareness and experience of the place describe in the text changes as he walks the circular routes repeatedly in the course of seven days whilst crossing 20

Figure 8

A Hundred Mile Walk

the same river and passing the same path. He becomes aware and familiar of the place, such as the sound of the river, streams, gullies and other natural phenomenon in the landscape(Wilson, Gallery, 1999, p.270). Perhaps this is the reason why Long undertake solitary walk all over the world, as thought through walking it allows him to be one step closer to nature, and that the art he makes illustrate the dialogue between him and nature itself (Long, 1994, p.251).

These three works demonstrate through the simple act of walking. Long is able to gain an increasing awareness to the natural elements that exist in time and space(Ives, 2002, p.10). Similar approaches could be seen in Nikolaus Pevsner’s “Visual Planning and Picturesque� book, where he praises the act of walking as a way to gather visual information, which he illustrated through a series of sequential views captured on a walk. He emphases that walking allows us to see things and experience all the matters that existed in our surrounding, thus he urges the planners and architects to adopt visual planning as a means to design, considering the human scale and relation through a sequential view as one walk across the city (Pevsner, 2010). Similar approaches using walking as a way to gather information to help inform the design development can also be seen by Peter Bosselmann. As an architecture, city and regional planning professor, Bosselmann is also interested in the ideas of using a series of pictorial sequences of different walks through different parts of the city, to establish the ideas of how the dimensions and placement of urban elements influence the perception of time? And using the findings as a way to approach the design (Tiesdell and Carmona, 2007, p.278).

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In conclusion, walking is a powerful tool which a have wide range of benefits depending on the intention. For Rousseau he sees walking as a way to escape from all the clutters in life, and enable him to seek pleasure and happiness (Rousseau, 1992) while for Long, walking enables him to see, hear, touch all of the natural elements which inform the making of his artwork (Wilson and Gallery, 1991, p.270), whereas for Bosselmann, through walking he able to establish how the dimensions and placement can influence our perception of time (Tiesdell and Carmona, 2007, p.278), and that we should consider using walking as a way to increase our understanding of our surrounding, the basic building blocks of the our design.

Bibliography Books Davidson, L. K., & Dunn, M. (1996). The pilgrimage to Compostela in the Middle Ages. New York, London: Routledge.

Fuchs, R. H., & Long, R. (1986). Richard Long. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ; London : Thames and Hudson.

Ives., T. G. S. (2002). Richard Long: a moving world. St Ives: Tate St Ives.

Long, R. (1998). Mirage. London: Phaidon Press Limited.

Long, R., Fulton, H., Seymour, A., Cork, R., & Gallery., H. (1994). Richard Long: walking in circles (Limited signed ed (600). ed.): Thames & Hudson.

Long, R., & Gallery., S. A. N. (2011). Richard Long: Karoo Highveld: works from South Africa, 2004 and 2011. London: Haunch of Venison.

Long, R., Museum Kurhaus Kleve , h. i., New Art Gallery Walsall, h. i., & Hamburger Kunsthalle, h. i.

(2013). Richard Long, prints 1970-2013. Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König.

Long, R., & Venison., H. o. (2003). Here and now and then. London: Haunch of Venison.

Malpas, W. (1999). Richard Long: the art of walking (2nd ed. ed.). Kidderminster: Crescent Moon.

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Pevsner, N., Institute., G. R., & Aitchison, M. (2010). Visual planning and the picturesque. Los Angeles, Calif: Getty Research Institute.

Rendell, J. (2002). The pursuit of pleasure: gender, space & architecture in Regency London.

London: Athlone.

Rousseau, J.-J.(1992). The reveries of the solitary walker. Indianapolis: Hackett.

Sebald, W. G. (2002). The rings of Saturn. London: Vintage.

Solnit, R. (2002). Wanderlust: a history of walking.

London: Verso.

Tiesdell, S., & Carmona, M. (2007). Urban design reader. Oxford: Architectural.

Tufnell, B. (2006). Land art. London: Tate ; New York : Distributed in the U.S. by Harry N. Abrams.

Wallis, C., Britain, T., & Long, R. (2009). Richard Long: heaven and Earth. London: Tate.

Wilson, S., & Gallery., T. (1991). Tate Gallery: an illustrated companion (2nd ed. rev. and expanded. ed.). London: Tate Gallery.

Long, R. and Fuchs, R. (1986). Richard Long. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson.

Film on DVD The Way (2010) Directed by Emilio Estevez DVD. Based on the book Off The Road: Morden-Day Walk Down the Pilgrim Routes into Spain by Jack Hitt. Filmax Entertainment Webs Burgon, R (2012) A Line Made By Walking. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-linemade-by-walking-ar00142/text-summary . (Accessed: 15 October 2014)

Manchester, E. (2005) Sahara Circle. Available at: http:// www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-sahara-circle-t12036/ text-summary . (Accessed: 15 October 2014) O’Hagan, S (2009) One step beyond. Available at: http:// www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/may/10/artrichard-long. (Accessed: 12 October 2014) Wore, N. (2003) No Stone unturned. Available at http:// www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/jun/28/art. artsfeatures1. (accessed; 20 October 2014).

Images Fig. 1 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-ofsticks-in-somerset-al00189. (Accessed: 20/11/2014) Fig. 2 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-turfcircle-p07148. (Accessed: 20/11/2014) Fig. 3 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-silencecircle-big-bend-texas-t06472. (Accessed: 20/11/2014) Fig. 4 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-circlein-alaska-al00212. (accessed: 20/11/2014).

Fig. 5 http://www.richardlong.org/ Sculptures/2011sculpupgrades/snowball.html. (Accessed: 20/11/2014) Fig. 6 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-linemade-by-walking-ar00142Fig. 7. (accessed: 20/11/14) Fig. 7 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-saharacircle-t12036. (accessed: 20/11/2014) Fig. 8 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-ahundred-mile-walk-t01720. (accessed: 20/11/2014)

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