Exhibition Review: Uncommon Ground

Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966-1979 (UK Touring Exhibition)

The Mead Gallery, Warwick Art Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry

18th January – 8th March 2014

FREE ENTRY

Artists: Roger Ackling, Keith Arnatt, Boyle Family, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Tony Cragg, Jan Dibbets, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Barry Flanagan, Hamish Fulton, Andy Goldsworthy, Antony Gormley, Susan Hiller, John Hilliard, Derek Jarman, David Lamelas, John Latham, Richard Long, Roelof Louw, Anthony McCall, Bruce McLean, Garry Fabian Miller, David Nash, Roger Palmer, David Tremlett

Curated by:

Nicolas Alfrey (University of Nottingham)

Joy Sleeman (UCL Slade School of Fine Art)

Ben Tuffnell (writer and curator)

Review by: Hazel Johnson

The land that surrounds us has been the inspiration to many great artists throughout history. Uncommon Ground celebrates the diversity of Land Art created between the mid 60’s and the late 70’s. A carefully selected combination of 24 of the most significant artists working within this period will be on show at the Mead Gallery until mid-March.

The exhibition questions what it is to be a spectator experiencing these pieces. Unlike most art works, land art is reliant upon an experiential method of viewing, a direct involvement with the artist.

Many of the works on show existed in their original format for only their moment of creation, and this is one of the brilliances of Land Art. Therefore, how is it that today, in some cases 40 years later, the viewer can still share that experience with the artist, long after the moment has passed. The indexical record, created through photographic capture, has challenged the site-specific temporality of many of these pieces. By recreating the pieces through a photograph the context is preserved, yet altered.

Jacob Bronowski in The Ascent of Man (1973) states that man “is not a figure on the landscape – he is a shaper of the landscape.” Andy Goldsworthy in a prime example of this ‘man’. Four photographs, presented in grid format, show the visual exploration Goldsworthy has with the landscape. He challenges and pushed the elements into sculptures that echo natural habitats, yet stand out like a sore thumb. The use of photography is vital to Goldsworthy. It is used not simply to record, but to re-invent his pieces. ‘Forked Twigs in Water- Bentham’ (1979) and ‘Balanced Rocks’ (1978) are displayed along side each other, the balance between positive and negative space is mirrored in each image, showing the importance of Goldsworthy’s images beyond simply the sculptures presence in the landscape. Goldsworthy uses the landscape to paint a vision. His sculptures themselves are temporary; through the capture they become permanent, and only then is the process complete.

Andy Goldsworthy, Balanced Rocks, 1978

Andy Goldsworthy, Forked Twigs in Water- Bentham, 1979

To recreate the atmosphere and experience the artists underwent in the creation, text becomes important to complete the narrative. Richard Long’s ‘Footstones’ (1979) is a series of simple black and white images of cairns (piles of stones used to guide walkers in poor visibility). Only when the individual title is read in conjunction ‘82 stones placed at 82 feet’ the viewer imagines feeling the exhaustion that would have occurred in the building of these sculptures. The text is equally important to support Long’s image of a field with an indented straight line through the centre. It’s title, ‘A Line Made by Walking’ (1967), explains both the method of creation, and raises thoughts on the power of man to manipulate nature.

Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking, 1967

Whereas many of the artists worked directly with the physical environment as a tool and canvas, Roger Ackling used the weather as his paintbrush. The natural force of the sunlight and its connection with time was used to create ‘Five Hour Cloud Drawing’ (1980). This image was created with a hand-held magnifying glass used to direct the sun’s rays into an intense beam that burnt the paper. This innovative method of recording shows the variation in the suns intensity with un-burnt areas showing when the clouds blocked out the sun. This piece subtly humours the British obsession with changes in environment and temperature.

Roger Ackling, Five Hour Cloud Drawing, 1980

This obsession with weather also inspired Susan Hiller, whose collections of postcards focus on the extreme conditions caused by the sea. Hiller, who shares Hemera’s love for postcards, collected and categorised British postcards with images of the ‘Rough Sea’ under the title ‘Dedicated to the Unknown Artist’ (1972–76). Displayed with information charts to show the similarities and differences between the presentations of the postcards, Hiller uses these commodities that were once everyday objects and presents them as specimens.

Barry Flanagan, Grass 2, 1967

As much as each piece of work on show holds its own individual value, it was Barry Flanagan’s ‘Grass 1’, ‘Grass 2’ and ‘Grass 3’ that personally stole the show. Flanagan has transformed the banal and everyday subject matter of grass and glorified it through the use of the camera. The photographic outcomes show the simplest material captured in a manner that evokes a sensation of delight, calmness and transience.

This exhibition is a celebration of the committed conceptualist artists on the 1960’s and 70’s shows the importance of out natural environment, and there is no better place to view this than in a gallery disconnected from the cosmopolitan society. The Mead Gallery is the perfect backdrop for the most comprehensive exhibition of British Land Art to date.