cavetocanvas:

Richard Long, South Bank Circle, 1991

From the Tate Collection:

South Bank Circle was created specifically for Long’s 1991 retrospective at the Hayward Gallery at the South Bank Centre in London. It is a circle, nearly two metres in diameter, composed of 168 pieces of slate lying close together on the floor. The slate comes from the Delabole quarry in Cornwall. The pieces may be assembled in a wide variety of configurations within the defining form of the circle. Long has specified that every ‘stone’ should touch the stones adjoining it, so that they all become ‘”locked” together, and stable. The longest stones (and also the thinnest and smallest ones) should be placed within the work and not around the edge. There is an equal density of stone throughout, and overall the work should look balanced and circular.’ Bringing together the unevenly shaped pieces of slate in the geometric structure of the circle, the sculpture illustrates a theme common in Long’s work, the relationship between man and nature. As he has explained, ‘you could say that my work is … a balance between the patterns of nature and the formalism of human, abstract ideas like lines and circles. It is where my human characteristics meet the natural forces and patterns of the world, and that is really the kind of subject of my work.’