Peloponnese Line, 2017
Richard Long (born 1945, UK) has been in the vanguard of conceptual and land art in Britain since he created A Line Made by Walking half a century ago in 1967, the same year as Lisson Gallery was founded. That photograph, of the fixed path left by his feet repeatedly traversing a section of grass, established a precedent that art could be a journey. Ever since, Long has made site-specific, ephemeral works in the open air, as well as in gallery settings.
This new large-scale mud work, made directly on to one wall of Store Studios, continues a series of temporary murals in clay and mud that include other monumental examples, such as Long’s Red Earth Circle, made for the ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. Over a minimal black line, the artist’s gestures and finger strokes suggest a simultaneity of forces governing each mark – from his own bodily movement and energy, to the gravity, chance and nature of the unstable, liquid material.