Art / Exhibitions
Richard Long exhibition opens at Arnolfini
This line of white stones is an off-site work by Richard Long commissioned by the Arnolfini as part the artist’s major solo show, Time and Space.
They are placed on what is known as a ‘desire line’ – a path created over years and years by walkers and runners, involuntarily following the same line.
As a boy, Long lived in Clifton, playing in this very area.
Should you find the stones near Ladies Mile – and it took me a while despite being given directions – you will be walking in the footsteps of Long as a child, now marked not just with this desire line but limestone blocks.
The rest of the exhibition is inside and ranges from works the size of walls in the ground floor gallery made with mud from the River Avon to books and fingerprint drawings on driftwood on the top level.
Almost the entire gallery has been given over to the Turner Prize-winning artist, with this his first show in Bristol for 15 years.
What I found most compelling was Long’s lifetime work sharing a startlingly similar aesthetic whether in large or small scale, inside or outside.
While many of Bristol’s modern-day artists draw on walls, Long creates his most striking and memorable art on the floor in far-flung corners of the globe, be it in the Himalayas or Peru, or once again in BS8.
I only wish it could be easier to visit some of these wilder outdoor locations, as the work seems somewhat sterile placed on a gallery floor rather than clinging to the side of a mountain.
Richard Long: Time and Space is at the Arnolfini until November 15. For more information, visit www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/richard-long-time-and-space.