Hamish Fulton

Born in 1946 in London (GB)
Lives and works in Canterbury (GB)

Eyes of a snake: an eleven days wandering walk in Central Australia, July 1982

1982
Black and white photograph, gelatin-silver print
96,5 x 250 cm
Year of Purchase: 1984

Hamish Fulton’s photographic works are not images of places, but the culmination of solitary walks in nature. The artist’s physical involvement and his special relationship with nature offer a vision of remote and untouched landscapes. Since 1968, Fulton has been associated with Land Art artists who use outside space as a place of creation. The artist’s very private works are obtained with a considerable spareness of means, thus illustrating a timeless nature. These photographic landscapes have sometimes been regarded as ‘mental sculptures’, so much so does Fulton share with sculptors their concern with space, time, and matter. The referential relation of images and titles is primordial. With all the data of the shot at his beck and call, the spectator is invited to re-create the space conjured up and the artist’s itinerary. So Eyes of a Snake, an eleven days wandering walk in Central Australia, July 1982 (1982) makes reference to a nomadic and itinerant route taken on that island continent. In this vast and harmonious panorama presented in triptych form, there is a subtle shift from a rocky desertscape towards a more clement and meandering nature. The rhythmic composition of this work seems to refer to the vibrations felt by the artist in front of this grandiose landscape.

^{Sophie Richard}