Walk On

Multiple artists

Walk On is the first exhibition to examine the astonishingly varied ways that artists, from the 1960s onwards, have undertaken a seemingly universal act – that of taking a walk – as a means to create new types of art.

The exhibition offered an as-yet-unwritten history of recent art practice, bringing together artists who over the last four decades have worked like explorers, either acting as urban expeditionists or making marks within the rural wilderness. From land art to conceptual art, and from street photography to the essay-film, the exhibition proposes that some of the most significant art works of our time have been created through the act of walking.

All of the artists in the exhibition make work by undertaking a journey on foot, whether by using the city street as their studio, or the landscape as their natural habitat. By doing so, they identify and stake out a new artistic territory. The exhibition includes several internationally celebrated artists alongside emerging figures who have created new works specifically for the project.

Walk On - Catherine Yass — Walk on, Catherine Yass (2014)

Walk On - install shot 1 — Walk on (2014)

Walk On - Dan Holdsworth — Walk on, Dan Holdsworth (2014)

Walk On - install shot 2 — Walk on (2014)

Artists such as Richard Long have created work as he walks across countries and continents, leaving behind traces of his movements on the land itself. Other walking artists only exhibit documents from their journeys, in the form of photographs, texts or artefacts. For them, the walk undertaken is itself the artwork – a performance fashioned over time – and anything else produced by the artist is seen as only evidence or documentation.

Some artists such as Marina Abramović have walked over historic sites - undertaking an epic journey across the length of the Great Wall of China, in a symbolic act of meeting and then separating with her then collaborator Ulay.

Walk On was developed in partnership with Art Circuit Touring Exhibitions and WALK (Walking, Art, Landskip and Knowledge) at the University of Sunderland, and in association with VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities). The exhibition was curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell and artist Mike Collier of WALK in partnership with Alistair Robinson, Curator, NGCA (Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art), and supported by Arts Council England.

MIRROR (previously The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art) presented the work of artists Dan Holdsworth, Tracy Hanna, Rachel Reupke, Tim Brennan, Tim Knowles, Catherine Yass, Wrights & Sites, Janet Cardiff and Brian Thompson.

We also produced a new walk by artist Hamish Fulton.

Walk On - PCA handout

Walk On - Leaflet