The brief for this project was to produce a conceptual art work on the theme of ‘Nation’.
Where to start? What creates the feeling of belonging to a Nation? Some thoughts:
- A shared culture.
- A shared history – historic continuity.
- Governance/government.
- A sense of place.
All of these are complex but often the really important issues are buried beneath crude stereotypes and signifiers – for Scots; kilts, haggis, Braveheart, booze, tartan etc etc. The sense of belonging to, or identifying with, a place is represented by the ‘border’ – the line that divides us from them. Political change across the world has placed emphasis on borders: Brexit raising a fence between UK and Europe, Donald Trump promising a wall between Mexico and the USA. It is so easy to blame national troubles on those living across the border. How real, how significant are these borders? W hat do the lines on the maps look like in reality?
Richard Long has created much his artwork from lines on maps: translating the drawn line, circle or shape into a walking sculpture. Long denies that he is a conceptual artist but it is hard to see any other interpretation for say, a sculpture defined by a map bearing, followed regardless of obstructions. Some of these walks are only represented by the line on a map, text pieces or photographs of ephemeral interventions made en-route with found materials.
Concentric days 
Darmoor time 
10 mile walk on Exmoor
Long’s idea of creating a conceptual walking sculpture was the inspiration for my investigation: Crossing Borders.
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