Art Metropole

#15101

Arnoavon

Artist

Richard Long

Price

$65.00

Date

2018

Publisher

Zona Archives

Format

Artists' Books

Genre

Contemporary Art

A R N O A V O N is Richard Long’s intervention consisting of two “mud works” that characterize in an unprecedented way two specific walls of the architectural container: a circle and a semi-circle created by applying the mud directly on the wall using only the hands. Mud is one of the natural elements constantly present in Long’s work, and is considered by him to be a natural bridge between water and rock. The fluidity of this medium thus allows him to draw geometric shapes through gestures that distribute the mud along the walls of the space. It is a spontaneous painting, which explores the possibilities of the arrangement of matter, but also which reveals its intrinsic energy. Just like the water of a river flowing towards the sea, so the mud flows from the walls towards the floor. This exhibition is a tribute to the Arno, the river of Florence, which brings the artist’s mind back to the Avon, the river that passes through his hometown, Bristol, and with whose mud the artist has worked a lot . The use of local materials is in fact a constant of Long’s artistic practice that brings him even closer to the places where he creates and exhibits his work. As Long explains: “I always have a precise idea of ​​the overall form of the work, which is balanced by the spontaneity of the execution. The speed of the gesture is important because it is what creates the trace of the jet, which shows the wateriness of the mud, and water is the subject and main object of these works, showing its nature. I am interested in this typicality of the cosmic variety: each stone is different, as is each fingerprint, each cloud, each jet, each walk; and you can never enter the same river twice “. The artist then brings back to the exhibition space the experience lived in the landscape, reconstructing his constant relationship with nature. This interaction is recreated through the gestures of the sign, just as it happened in prehistoric wall painting, and testifies to the radical adherence to natural means and the ability to work with the human body alone.