Uncommon Ground- Land Art in Britain (1966- 1979). Mead Gallery Exhibition

On Wednesday I visited the Mead Gallery in Coventry to look at the Uncommon Ground exhibition. I chose to see the work because it related to my Drawing Project as I have been researching into the Land Art movement and this section of the movement interested me!

The gallery was a nice however I found it quite small, I would of liked to see more artwork and I know that they have more work in their archives!
However the exhibition has greatly inspired me and by reading about the artists before I went, it was nice to see the work for real and you can see how they made it.
Here are some artists which interested me:

• Richard Long- I have already researched into his work but by seeing works such as 'Cerne Abbas Walk' I realised that he hand wrote the description below the image and the photograph wasn't that big however the frame was very large around it.

'Cerne Abbas Walk'

1975

Ink, transcript, photograph on map and black-and-white photograph

72.4 x 73.7cm

• Hamish Fulton- Fultons work was very similar to Long's however, instead of one photo per frame, he has several, they all followed a theme alongside some text and I have now incorporated this style into my drawing project.

'Moonset and sunrise'

Photographs and text on card

25.4 x 37.1 cm

• Garry Fabian Miller- There were 6 photographs from 'Sections of England' and I loved the colours, they almost felt like paintings and the images were fuzzy. However, the curator of the exhibition had placed the photographs so there was glare and reflection from the light. The book which I purchased gives me a better view of the images.

Sections of England- The Sea Horizon No 36

1976-7

Lambda C-Print  Edition of 5

49.5 x 49.5

• Boyle Family- There were 2 very large pieces on the wall which I thought represented pavements and the ground. One of them was ' Olaf Street Study' and I really love them. They feel like paintings and the variety of colour and texture is amazing! It puts things into perspective when a small section of a pathway is placed on a wall and you consider it as art. That's when you see the patterns and depth!

• Roger Ackling- By already studying Ackling, it was nice to see the work for real as you appreciate the delicate and neat lines in which he burns into the wood with a magnifying glass. They are very small and you can see the outlines he has drawn with pencil.

' Night and Day' (1 Hour)

1977

Sunlight on wood

32 x 9.6cm

• Deacon Jarman- I'm not a fan of filmwork but 'A journey to Avebury' caught my attention as it was similar to my filmwork for my installation. It too was a silent film (although when he presented it in galleries he played classical music with it) and contained static shots of the land he thought was significant on his walk. However, he had used a yellow filter on his camera so it gave a surreal and unrealistic view of the land.

Film still of 'Journey to Avebury'

1971

S8mm transferred to SD DVD

10mins

Because the exhibition was limited to British work only, which I felt related to my own practice, and focused on the times of 1966 to 1979, it was a small exhibition, I would now like to see a large Land Art exhibition containing the American artists such as Smithson but also relate the later work to more modern Land Art work!

The book I brought at the gallery 

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-cerne-abbas-walk-t02066

http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/images/work/FULTON,_Hamish,_ACC19-19731139.png

http://www.inglebygallery.com/exhibitions/garry-fabian-miller-the-middle-place/

http://www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk/showWork.do?id=877