Safe in the quiet woods, I drew breath. I spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon pottering about and walking – getting lost, wading through mud and enormous puddles up to the top of my wellies, slithering down narrow muddy tracks down to the river, listening intently for the sounds of birds, water, distant traffic and humans – all the time breathing in fresh clean air and absorbing the strength and presence of the trees. There was a group of tall upright conifers amongst this mixed woodland: not normally my favourite sort of tree, but these were majestic, graceful and vigorous. I gathered fallen leaves and arranged them in a circle around a particularly handsome-looking specimen.

It was a glorious sunny day. All stress drained away, and I felt happy and completely at home. I began to indulge in little fantasies, and as I wandered around, I began to have interesting little conversations with trees, plants, stumps and stones. I thought I would return the next day and sing songs, recite poetry, make a recording… but I didn’t, because there has been torrential rain here, ever since. That’s my excuse, anyway!
 

I am leading a sort of double life at the moment: between home in North Devon, where I like to think I am getting life, family and work into some sort of coherent balance (no chance!) – and my Arts & Ecology course at Dartington in South Devon, which runs on three-week intensive modules.

Both of the two regions of Devon are lovely places to live, with very different landscapes. Next time I will try to post some pictures for comparison – but I can’t seem to put my hands on any at the moment! Now that I have made myself at home here again, I am ready to start Module 2. Here is what I made when I arrived at Dartington for the first module, a couple of months ago… I called it ‘Tree Rings at Dartington – a Grounding Exercise’.

Interestingly, Module 1 was very much focused on ‘place’… and I have learned that the prefix ‘eco’ (as in ‘eco-nomy’ and ‘eco-logy’) comes from the Greek word for ‘home’. How did I get through life without knowing this before?

COP15 (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) is coming up next month. This is the latest UN Climate Change Conference, where the world’s leaders will gather in Copenhagen to reach a deal which puts the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change. We know how crucially important this conference will be to the survival of our species as well as many others. We know too, that our culture of ‘Western industrial capitalism’ has grown monstrous and is responsible for appalling human suffering in Third World countries, and has already caused massive environmental damage.

No one can deny the world is warming up now, and it seems clear beyond doubt that it is linked to unprecedented levels of carbon emissions from the industrialised nations. We have seen its effects already: the horror movies, the floods, the bodies floating down the streets, the gradual extinction of species – their habitat and escape routes gone and no means of survival. What is wrong with our predominant world-culture, that we can destroy the very environmental systems that sustain our lives? What is wrong with us that we can destroy our own home? Have we gone mad?

Things have to change. We cannot go on like this.

photo: courtesy Great Images in NASA

I am so grateful that nearly everyone I know is working quietly, each in their own way, to change the situation, and to find wholesome and sustainable ways forward for us all. And, in the run up to COP15, this momentous conference, millions of people around the world, who wouldn’t normally do so, are taking action and making their voices heard.

Myself, I tried to do a solitary walk for the delegates – but it didn’t feel right, so I am writing this post instead. I shall do the walk for the Earth and all its creatures. And I shall take part in a special event organised by our Arts & Ecology group at Dartington on Dec 5th.

My wish for COP15 is that our leaders talk less and listen more, make wise, fair and compassionate decisions and have the courage to carry them out.

‘The Age of Stupid’ which I have mentioned before on this blog, is a great climate change film. There is also a huge number of videos online – good, bad and mediocre, but here are a couple I picked out as worth watching…

This one is ‘Climate Change Video’ from Oxfam:

Most of the artists I have mentioned in this blog have been working for years in relation to the natural world : ecological artists, like the Harrisons (see http://greenhousebritain.greenmuseum.org/), Alan Sonfist ( www.alansonfist.com), Brandon Ballengée (Throughstones post), and Jean-Paul Ganem.  There are many others that you can find on sites such as Green Museum and WEAD (Women Environmental Artists Directory) . And there are also others who are connecting and touching hearts one by one, at an ordinary everyday level. It is not necessarily size that matters. I am thinking particularly of ‘Walking the Land’, a small artists’ collective in UK.

And whilst I am on the subject, I would like to pay my respects to all those, who work without fuss (unlike myself) to restore and maintain proper relationships with the Earth… I am thinking at the moment of farmers, gardeners, those who protect wildlife and complex eco-systems, and those who keep vital traditional crafts alive, such as dry-stone walling, thatching, earth-building and hedging. Also those who are just kind to animals and little children, and always have time to stop for a friendly chat.

Here is a clear and brief overview of the UN Conferences on Climate Change – from the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit of 1992 up to today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Framework_Convention_on_Climate_Change.

And the UK Gov Department for International Development publishes some excellent articles on climate change topics. (www.dfid.gov.uk). In particular, see their section: “Climate Change and Copenhagen” for latest videos, photos and news.

Neither of these is my normal sort of reading – but they do give a useful frame of reference for all that confusing and conflicting information out there.

Finally, there are a few COP 15 links in my sidebar that might be of interest. There are many, many others worth investigating, on the internet.

Here are two important links:

The Wave | Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

The Wave

Devon is a county with a wonderful diversity of landscapes – it has Dartmoor and Exmoor, undulating green fields, rocky coastlines, large areas of woodland… but the way you know you are really in Devon is by its hedges.

Much of the county is inaccessible by public transport, and I can never forget my shock when first moving here three years ago, at just how long it took to get from point A to point B by car. The whole county seemed to be covered with mile after mile of meandering green tunnels – up and down hills, endless hairpin bends – high shady trees and hedges in various states of growth and maintenance – however beautiful in themselves, I felt impatient, exasperated .

And away from the wooded areas the country lanes were narrow, and claustrophobic, flanked by savagely-cut, high hedges impossible to see over the top.

Well, one cannot stay exasperated for ever, and I grew more patient – deciding that other species had needs as well as my own. I knew of the importance of hedges to wildlife, as habitat or as corridors, and I began to pick up a few snippets of other information. I wanted to know more.

The annual Devon Hedge Week has just taken place, so I took the opportunity to go along to the Halsannery Countryside Centre for a morning’s event with Tom Hynes from Northern Devon Coast and Countryside Service. Autumn leaves of vibrant reds, golds and yellows were strewn along the edges of the track as I approached the house. It was very good to breathe the fresh leafy earth-scented air.

Tom told us a little about the history of Devon hedges, and how they have evolved. I was amazed to learn that about 20% of them have been established as long as 800 years, and many more are very old indeed! A typical hedge is formed along earth banks, often supported by dry stone walling. Plants and trees establish themselves along the top of the banks, providing a wealth of resources for wildlife. Brambles and bushes lower down the banks are especially favoured by dormice.

We walked over the fields to look at hedges that had been restored at various times in recent years, one very recent and one awaiting work, and at each hedge Tom told us about methods of hedge management. I soon learned there was much more to all this than there first seemed , depending on fitness of purpose, geographical conditions and so on. So each hedge would be unique, depending on its history, current use, and importantly, its position in the landscape.

Tom gave us a great demonstration of the traditional craft of hedge-laying (steeping), and at the end of the morning, I came away with a new appreciation of these hedges that cover so much of the county.

Regarding the question of whether or not flailing is a good thing – have a look at Paula’s brilliant  post on the Locks Park Farm blog.

I still have many more questions, but on a visit to a friend’s farm today, I was able to recognise a well-laid hedge when I saw one, and its many benefits to humans and wildlife, and just how much these hedges hold together the fabric of the Devon landscape.

More info: www.devon.gov.uk/devon_hedges

Korean Nature-Art Association YATOO

LINDA GORDON 

Recent works made at Wongol, South Korea

Geumgang Nature-Art Centre

187-1 Jungdong, Gongju, Chungnam

TEL 041)853-8828

yatoo@hanmail.net

First time I have managed to get my head up. It’s good to come back to my dear old blog, and you guys! Thank you so much everyone for all your supportive messages and comments that I have never managed to answer….  just what I need to keeep me going during these pre-exhibition jitters! Very best wishes to you! Linda

This is by way of a (temporary) farewell post, as I am shortly off to rural Korea on an artist residency with YATOO Korean Nature Art Association. It is a highly-regarded organization internationally – established 28 years ago, and still run by the original artists. Their approach is to work in harmony with nature, trying to find a balance rather than impose particular ideas or concepts. It can take the form of spontaneous performances, short-lived installations or simple drawings, using found materials. Often the work is only ever seen in photographs. But the photographs are potent, because they reflect a moment in nature that is deeply familiar to us all.

© Ko, Seung-Hyun: DOOR WAY 1985

A couple of days after I get back, I shall be making an installation for Organic Arts at West Town Farm, Devon – then soon after that, I am planning to begin an MA course in the relatively new field of Arts & Ecology.

Why am doing this – at an age when most people are thinking of retirement? Because I have to. Because I feel that working collaboratively and bringing together the best of creative and scientific ways of thinking is our only way forward in resolving our extremely serious environmental challenges. A sort of fusion of left and right-brain activity, perhaps. I think humanity as a whole must take a huge evolutionary leap forward as a matter of urgency, and this is my personal leap.

Which brings me to the subject of: ‘So what am I doing flying halfway round the world, pumping out carbon emissions for the sake of an artist residency?

There is, in fact, quite a debate amongst artists at the moment on this very topic. Of course I can give you many good reasons for my choice, just as I can find many reasons against it – and of COURSE I did some long and hard soul-searching, and talked to colleagues before deciding to go ahead. I think, in these matters, it has to be up to individual conscience. After all, which of us can ever know all the factors that are at play in any person’s choices?

For me, this is not just any old residency – otherwise I would not go to so much trouble. I have long admired the ethos of Yatoo, and their approach to nature. I have a lot to learn there, and a lot to give.

© Hae-Sim Kim: GLABELLA 2008

So here, especially for William Shaw, editor of ‘RSA Arts & Ecology’  is a ‘quote’ from Ko, Seung-Hyun, president of ‘YATOO’:

“I want to be a part of the nature and do my best to do so.
I feel the nature in itself is in a perfect state without any addition and without subtraction.
As an old poet did, I think about what I will do for the Nature.
Breathing in the nature is my pray and staying there is my faith. I want to follow the nature’s providence and reasonableness rather than apply my ideas to the nature.”

I kneel at my open bedroom window, gazing out across the estuary , absorbing the sounds of small birds and occasional quiet voices. Down below a postman crosses between the houses and a dog barks in recognition.

I look down at the gardens all around, bursting with life and fertility: one neighbour’s sweet peas, another’s runner beans, and our own overgrown bushes and rambling roses. I am not much of a gardener, though I mean well. I don’t like to tidy up nature too much. Maybe that’s why we have so many slugs and snails. White gulls are drifting in front of my eyes. In the distance I can see slow white waves moving across the water, and low-lying hills beyond that.

In front of me, little birds have congregated singig on the telephone wires, and our lavishly green bushes are waving in the breeze. I remember the gull chick, a couple of years ago, who fell on to the kitchen roof just below me here – and how I watched closely throughout the summer, building up a respectful relationship with him until he eventually managed to fly away. And I think of Fudgie , a more recent and less fortunate casualty, (the chick with the bad dress sense) who fell out of his egg on our high chimney, and landed under the car. (L blows nose).

Blimey, Linda, you are only going away for a month or so. Time to go.

I will try to send through the occasional snapshot or bit of news, and will try to keep up with yours – though I am not sure how much time or internet access I will have. Meanwhile, have a good summer and thank you everyone for all the warmth, love and laughter you have given me.

Here are a few more pictures of the double-domed pavilion ‘I am so sorry. Goodbye’, from a previous incarnation at the Tatton Park (Chester) Biennial last year.

the photos above are © Duncan Hull.

More fabulous pictures of the Morisons’ work, including this one, on   Heather and Ivan Morison’s site.

Before I forget, here’s a brief glimpse at another major exhibition I visited in London: Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet – an RSA Arts & Ecology project at the Barbican Gallery.

From the RSA:
“The beauty and wonder of nature have provided inspiration for artists and architects for centuries. Since the 1960s, the increasingly evident degradation of the natural world and the effects of climate change have brought a new urgency to their responses. Radical Nature is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet.

Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke
and Robert Smithson, are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n), Philippe Rahm and Simon Starling.”

Such a massive exhibition covering a huge range of territory! It was a privilege to experience the visionary ideas, dreams and projects of so many brilliant people all under one roof. Over the duration of the exhibition (it continues until 18th October), there is also a host of fascinating side-events, talks and off-site projects, which will make a huge impact, and reach thousands of people. There is The Dalston Mill for instance, created by EXYZT, an experimental and socially-engaged architectural collective. They have turned a disused railway site into a functioning windmill producing flour and bread, and offering a range of public activities and feasts.

Being a retrospective, I had seen many of the exhibits before. As I said, it was great to see this body of work all together. All were interesting, though some rather dated of course, and some downright distasteful – like the one pictured below – of Henrik Hakansson’s ‘Fallen Forest’ a section of rainforest attempting to grow sideways out of giant black plastic pots.

Which is why, I suppose, I was most intrigued with the architectural works. They were less familiar to me, being outside my usual frame of reference. I was particularly taken with R & Sie(n)’s representation of their termite-shaped building: ‘Symbiosishood’ inspired by the topography of its site, a former minefield on the border between North and South Korea. The exterior will be covered with an invasive native plant, kudzu, which will slowly colonise and make the building invisible. Sorry I can’t find any images of this, but here’s a link to some of their work. R & Sie (n).

I am, of course, a great fan of Buckminster Fuller, and saw his influence everywhere – from the Buckminster Fuller exhibit itself to the Air-Port-City of Tomas Saraceno – a utopian modular flying cell of conjoined ‘cities’ (See top picture).

Best of all I liked ‘I Am So Sorry. Goodbye’ by Heather and Ivan Morison – a sort of Tea House – positioned outside on the terrace of the Barbican, just at the water’s edge. Buckminster Fuller would have adored it. It’s a double-domed pavilion, based on his geodesic dome principle and made out of chestnut wood (I think). I sat inside, grateful to hide for a few minutes from all the concrete and the harsh urban spaces. Sipping hibiscus tea, absorbing the sweet scent of warm wood and watching fluffy white clouds float by outside – all to the gentle background sound of trickling water – that was not a bad experience!

Please bear with the lengthy footage at the beginning, of notices and the stuffed wolf. You will see the Tea House towards the end of this clip.

I would like to have seen Agnes Denes’
‘Wheatfield-A Confrontation’, a restaging of her 1982 piece, where she planted two acres of wheat in Battery Park landfill, New York City. But I had grown tired, and it was enough just to know it was there.

There is no doubt the Radical Nature project is an extremely important landmark exhibition, and groundbreaking in the degree to which it reaches out to the public and integrates with real life as it is lived. It will for sure have a far-reaching influence for many years to come.

RADICAL NATURE Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969 – 2009.
19 June – 18 October 2009. Barbican Art Gallery.

Info on Radical Nature and other projects on RSA Arts & Ecology-Projects

Tree Radical: 50 trees take to the streets of London.

Radical Nature  site

Barbican: Radical Nature

Buckminster Fuller video on Respond! Persist!

Here’s an atmospheric film by my friend Pamela, about the remote rural landscape of Tarset, Northumberland, where I recently lived for a year as artist-in-residence.

It is wonderful to see this film, and be reminded of places I knew intimately through walking and walking, observing and being. Thanks Pamela!

As the artist herself says,this is  “a land of contrasts and subtle changes.”
Stillness and movement, sound and silence… Gentle birdsong, a passing fly and the bleating of distant sheep, to the insistent roar of fast-moving water-all are background music to an undercurrent of deep silence.

Even occasional signs of modern everyday life – a passing motor vehicle or an aeroplane miles up in the sky – only serve to intensify the peace and the bottomless silence of the land.

That’s my take on the film, anyway! Though it is, of course, coloured by my own memories and experience of the place.

BORDERLINE is a new film, first shown at Northumbria University’s conference “Northernness: Ideas and Images of North in Visual Culture” on 26 June 2009.

See more of Pamela Robertson Pearce’s work on Neil Astley’s  page  on Vimeo.

Heaven and Earth: Richard Long Retrospective at Tate Britain, London.

We are embedded within heaven and earth. It is our real identity. There is not a lot more to say, though as a species, we seem to make an awful lot of fuss and noise as we make our way through the world.

For me, this fundamental reality is the continuing message of Richard Long’s work, though others might approach it differently. It is what I say when people ask me ‘Why does he keep on making those stone circles, year after year?’ It is the most important message anyone could give, and it bears repeating. And of course every circle is different, depending on the place, the time and the circumstances – and there is infinitely more to his practice than just the circles. Underlying it all, there is the walking, the passing through the landscape.

 The famous photograph: ‘A Line Made by Walking’ (made whilst still a student in 1967) was one of the exhibits in this Tate Britain retrospective. This simple work now seems to encapsulate an entire era – a time when currents of minimalism, conceptualism and land art were at play, and there was growing interest in Eastern philosophy. But at the time, it must have appeared a startling departure from orthodox sculptural practice.

Richard Long
A Line Made by Walking 1967

“My art is in the nature of things

I like the idea of making something from nothing

I can walk all day and sleep all night following an idea

I use the land without need of ownership

My talent as an artist is to walk across a moor
or place a stone on the ground

My work is about movement and stillness
the walking and the stopping places
it can be passing by or leaving a mark

I use intuition and chance body and mind
time and space

I use the world as I find it”
(from the exhibition brochure)

Richard Long began walking as an art form as a way of considering scale, distance, dimensionality, time and space, and has been doing it ever since. The walks are often documented by photography, text or maps as appropriate, and these become artworks in their own right. It was very satisfying for me to see such an extensive body of work all together – and to recognise many old friends that I have long known in reproduction.

I was particularly interested in his use of black and white photography, which together with lettering and printing techniques, both ‘dated’ the works and also gave a sense of an endless journey through time.

His focus is upon the landscape. Whether his walks have been taken close to home in England, or in remote areas of the world such as the Sahara or the Arctic Circle, there is, on the whole, no sign of human activity in the photographs – only the signs of his own passing through.

Richard Long
A Line in Scotland 1981
© Copyright the artist

The familiar smell of mud as I first walked into the gallery, and Long’s handprints covering an enormous area of wall, gave me an immediate sense of a particular place in nature (in this case, the River Avon near Bristol) . At the same time I felt a sort of primal urge to become involved and integrated into the land in the same way. There were a number of other large-scale mud works, and some large stone pieces, simple, archetypal forms, but dense in meanings and resonances.  All of these had a similar double-sided effect: the evocation of ‘place’ and a silent insistent invitation to go deeper.
The appeal is to the physical senses. The books, photographs, maps, poetry and textual works take you there by a different route.

RAILWAY LINE
A PAIR OF BUZZARDS
THISTLES
IRISHMAN’S WALL
WHITEHORSE HILL
STATT’S HOUSE …….
(from ‘A Straight Northward Walk across Dartmoor’ England 1979.)

I was so happy to find myself coming out into the vast central gallery containing the six massive stone works, stunning in their physicality, their simplicity of form and the absolute precision of geometry within this space.
I lingered amongst the stones, every one unique, every one in its place, complementing each other and the wall-based works I had just seen. The whole gallery seemed to vibrate with life.

To see the stones, you will need to look at The Richard Long Newsletter (under ‘Current Exhibitions’)

Heaven and Earth is a memorable and awe-inspiring exhibition, which gave me an experience of being held safe within the forces of the universe. But, towards the end of the exhibition, some enormous colour prints brought me jarringly up-to-date, reminding me of tourist advertising: nature as commodity. I didn’t care for these at all! On reflection though, I can see that Long has once again knocked the edges of our comfort zones: indirectly drawing attention to currently prevailing attitudes and their environmental consequences.

Whatever form it takes – photographs, maps, text, walking, or works with stone, sticks, mud or water – Richard Long’s art is grounded in direct engagement with the land, and tells us of our true nature.

Richard Long’s official site has a huge amount of information on his work: http://www.richardlong.org

And you will find details of his exhibitions, including many superb shots of ‘Heaven and Earth’ on The Richard Long Newsletter (under ‘Current Exhibitions’). Heartily recommended.

There is also a wonderful review by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian, titled ‘A Hymn of Love to the Earth’

‘ Heaven and Earth’ runs until 6^th September, at London’s Tate Britain: www.tate.org.uk