In-Between Places: Richard Long's Walk-Works on Dartmoor and in Japan

Authors

• Eriko Yamaguchi, University of Tsukuba, JapanFollow

Abstract

Contemporary British sculptor Richard Long creates sculptures for places that he encounters during walks. Each sculpture is place-specific, but rather than separating one place from another, a Long sculpture, besides connecting places, also creates a place in the in-between spaces. Long notes that his landscape sculptures “are out there in the world, somewhere.” His work engages directly with the materials that constitute those in-between places as a mark of his being on his way. His sculptures thereby encompass time, space, speed, the distance of his walk, his physical reality, and sensory experiences encountered during his walks. These will, however, soon disappear or disperse, but his walk continues and is never completed. Such walk-works challenge the received wisdom that a canonical sculpture must be a visual form of material weight and permanence. He also makes his works a counterpoint to the contemporary world, where walking is primarily a means to an end. The goal-directed notion of transport and the network of point-to-point connections neglect the experience engendered in the in between and thereby diminish it. This paper explores Long’s walk-works in the in-between places to reconsider rich meanings in a transitional space and time, somewhere, nowhere.