Richard Long

In 2006 Lismore Castle Arts presented a solo exhibition by pioneering land artist Richard Long from 21^st May – 1^st October, 2006. This much anticipated included specially created, site-specific work incorporating materials gathered from the River Blackwater and the Lismore landscape, as well as brand new work produced in response to a walk undertaken in Southern Ireland earlier this year.

The landscape is Long’s medium, and since the late 1960s he has used walking itself as an artistic form - his sculptures, maps, photographs and works created from the written word documenting his experiences of the natural landscape which he encounters. Long’s relationship with Ireland and its landscape is well documented. He featured in IMMA’s inaugural exhibition of 1991 and his ‘A Circle in Ireland’ is amongst his most instantly recognisable and best loved works. The new work that was presented in this exhibition bears testimony to Long’s continued love of Ireland and to his ongoing fascination with the Irish landscape.

It is entirely fitting, therefore, that Long’s first solo exhibition in Ireland since 1984 was held at Lismore Castle Arts where the gallery itself is set within beautiful Jacobean gardens which lie in the Blackwater Valley. Indeed, ‘Cornwall Slate Line’, the work which dominated Long’s Turner Prize winning exhibition at the Tate (1989), had been installed in the gardens at Lismore for the duration of the show, adding another dimension to the fine collection of contemporary sculpture which is on permanent display.

In recognition of the significance of this exhibition and of the continued significance of Long’s work within Ireland, acclaimed author Colm Tóibín had written a monograph to accompany the show which was presented together with Long’s images in a limited edition publication.