Exercise 2.5 Text in Art

The exercise is to write down 12-24 brief observations during a short walk or journey in a similar manner to Richard Long's 'textworks'. The work below is typical:

Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-two-straight-twelve-mile-walks-on-dartmoor-england-1980-t03161. Accessed on 18 May 2016.

Long seeks to provide description and intuition by his narrative. He evidently has empathy with nature, and observatory powers. He respects basic shapes, especially circles (Tate Modern, undated) and as the above he intertwines location with experience. Other works incorporate other senses, notably sound and some look for a theme, such as colour in White Light Walk:

Richard Long White Light Walk 1987. Available from http://www.richardlong.org/Textworks/2011textworks/22.html. Accessed on 18 May 2016

My walk from Porthcawl to Port Talbot is the journey I wish to use for Assignment 2 (NB it is the first of the two days that is discussed here). Two themes came to mind while walking: the interplay of uses of this stretch of coast often in close juxtaposition; and the contrast between the decaying and threatened industrial landscape and the leisure based renewal. It has led me to view these as a series of binary contrasts as set out below:

Coney Leisure Park and Port Talbot Steelworks – Escapism and Trepidation

Coney Leisure Park and Port Talbot Steelworks – Closed and open on a Saturday morning  (paradoxically)

Apartments at The Rest and houses in Margam - New and Traditional

Bluebells at Craig Fawr and train at the Steelworks – Nature and Enterprise

Gorsedd Stone Circle in sight of the steelworks – Ancient and Modern

Gorsedd Stone Circle in sight of the steelworks – Not what it seems (the steelworks predate the circle..)

Woods in Craig Fawr and tunnel under M4 – beauty and sublime

Porthcawl Harbour  and under the M4 - Maintained and neglected

Sheep grazing in field next to M4 with sound – contentment and focused

Walkers at Kenfig Burrows and rubbish tip on Margam Moors – idyllic and unattractive

Transport Café and Porthcawl harbour –the is and the will be

Plastic path along the beach and the Plaza – funded and unfunded

Farming and industry – sheep grazing in sight of steelworks

The Actors on the fresco and The Boys playing in the woods – the heritage and the future

Reference:

Tate Modern, (undated) Richard Long, biography. Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-long-1525. Accessed on 18 May 2016