We’re delighted to announce the return of Richard Long RA to Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens as we unveil a new piece ‘Granite & Rabbits’.
Sir Richard Julian Long, CBE, RA is an English sculptor and one of the best-known British land artists. Long is the only artist to have been short-listed four times for the Turner Prize.
Long’s work has broadened the idea of sculpture to be a part of performance art and conceptual art. His work is typically made of earth, rock, mud, stone and other nature-based materials.
His first walk-based work, a straight line in a field, was created in 1967. Subsequent walks took Long across Dartmoor and Exmoor and enabled him to explore the relationships between time, distance, geography and measurement.
These walks were recorded in maps, photographs and text works. Throughout his career, Long has explored sculpture as a medium concerned with place as well as material and form.
Of his own work, Long has said:
“Over the years these sculptures have explored transience, permanence, visibility and recognition. A sculpture may be moved, dispersed or carried. Stones can be used as markers of time or distance, or exist as parts of a huge, yet anonymous, sculpture. On a mountain walk a sculpture could be made above the clouds, perhaps in a remote region, bringing an imaginative freedom about how, or where, art can be made in the world.”
The new 40-meter-long site-specific line installation replaces the already existing Richard Long piece ‘Tremenheere Line’ which was a line of planted Red Restio Grass.
After thriving for several years, the grass grew so rapidly and vibrant that it was determined a more enduring material should be used to recreate its potency while maintaining its shape and form.
A montage of Granite stones have been carefully placed to create a magnificent bold line. The new name ‘Granite & Rabbits’ was derived from the endearing observation that the new piece had quickly become a ‘hot spot’ for rabbits who found the stones warm to sit on.
Granite & Rabbits can be found with a stunning view, inviting an inspection of a line from the uppermost south-facing point of the gardens.
The installation has already been admired by many locally and from afar; “How wonderful. Good for you and good for Cornwall” – Claire Lily, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Sculpture Gardens are open daily 10.30 – 5.30, last entry 4.30. Book garden entry tickets here.