Richard Long, 1978

Richard Long 1977-78
A straight hundred mile walk in Australia: A walk along a line, returning to the same campsite each night
Near Broken Hill, New South Wales. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

Richard Long's trips are not expeditions of discovery but conceptually defined walks though different kinds of landscape. For example, A straight hundred mile walk in Australia 1977 is one of a series of straight hundred mile walks that he has undertaken in various countries including Ireland, Canada and Japan. The Australian walk was documented through photographs, which were then used to make a work and artist's book. Long's walk took place near Broken Hill" 'I had no particular destination in mind when I set out. I caught the train from Sydney to Perth and simply got off when I saw country that I thought was suitable. The walk was made daily, the artist returning to the same campsite each night; the hundred miles refers not to new ground covered but the cumulative total of the daily straight walk. During the walk he made 'A straight line in Australia 1977, known now, like many of Long's works in situ, only via photographic documentation.
…Long made site-specific works for the Sydney and Melbourne State galleries. Using blue metal stone found at a Sydney quarry, 'Stone line' was installed in the entrance gallery of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The branches for 'Bushwood circle', installed in the National Gallery of Victoria's Murdoch Court, were collected during a walk in bushland near Melbourne. Long also made a work for Kaldor, 'Sydney Harbour driftwood', from pieces of driftwood collected around the foreshores of the Lane Cove River, near the Kaldor house.