Having newly acquired a Tate membership card, I thought it was about time that I went and used it, so me and the knife rack pottered over to the Tate Britain to look at the Richard Long exhibition; Heaven and Earth.

Richard Long’s work draws on his love of nature and walking, his pieces cover photography, sculpture and written work. To give a very brief, while walking he will create sculptures from the those items around him, these often take the form of lines or circles. Sometimes it will be to map out a journey, he will place a stone, somewhere on each day of his walk. One piece which caught me eye, he removed daisies in a field so they formed an X in the grass. These sculptures are photographed and their location and date documented. Other works are in the form of lists, detailing what he has seen, or heard on a walk, or the distance and location. One of the most dramatic rooms in the exhibition, were sculptures, where he had collected stones and created geometric shapes on the floor of the gallery, Mimicking the work he creates outside.

Thankfully on the day we went the gallery was relatively empty, as there is an extremely tranquil atmosphere in Long’s work. I think this links into the calm feeling that one experiences when trekking across the wilderness, the ability to walk for days and not see a single person, car, or house. His work is both transient and permanent. Some pieces, such as the ‘Two Lines of Water’ photographed in India, will only be there for a matter of minutes, where as the stones he places, may remain for decades to come if not disturbed. In fact in one of his list works, he records seeing a pile of stones he placed 16 years ago.

Long has a considered approach to the world around him, though his pieces are not say on the intricate scale of artists like Andy Goldsworthy, who also uses natural resources to create sculpture. Long’s work has a kind of considered simplicity, he does not want to make a huge impact on the world he encounters, but these small actions allow there to be a record of human interaction.
His lists are wonderful, documenting those small instances of awareness, some are observations of the world around him, some show his thought process, others are the sounds. One which was particularly fascinating, shows the similarities between Dartmoor and Japan, where he documents seeing the same things, in order, in two walks miles apart. It reminded me of a book called Bleeding London, where one character strives to walk the entire greater London A-Z road map. He records his walks in a diary, writing down only those things that have caught his attention. The character becomes obsessed with the minutiae of London’s streets, those tiny details and histories that make up a personal geography of the city. It strikes me will all have our own documentation of the journeys we take, those features of an area that catch our eye for no particular reason, or the interactions we witness and become part of through our presence. I think Long’s work conveys something of the way in which we have an impact on our geography. One sociological theory talks of the grammar of walking and the individual maps we all make through our footsteps, the short cuts and ways we manipulate pathways. Long’s lists give us a personal geography, his map.

The sculptures were very impressive, huge lines of slate and circles of flint, my only criticism, I just want to touch them dammit! I love sculpture but all I want to do is feel it, I admit some is to delicate to be man handled, but when faced with piles of stone, I need texture as well as sight. So impressive and beautiful though they were, I felt like I wasn’t getting the full experience.

All in all Heaven and Earth was very enjoyable, my only instructions, being go on a calm day, mid week, or a sunny weekend, I think the atmosphere would be spoiled by lots of people.

You can find out about visiting the exhibition here, and you can find out more about Richard Long’s work here. You can also buy Richard Long, ‘Heaven and Earth’ on Amazon.