A Long Walk

British artist Richard Long RA has been awarded the 2012 AWEinspiring Award by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) in association with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW).

The AWEinspiring (Art, Water & Environment) Award was created by CIWEM’s Arts and Environment Network (AEN) and celebrates an artwork, project or artist, recognising their contribution to CIWEM’s vision of putting creativity at the heart of environmental policy and action. The award was presented at the CIWEM Annual Dinner at Drapers’ Hall in the city of London on 17th May.

Richard Long RA is a celebrated land artist and was already an influential environmental artist before the term became widely used. For over four decades he has been internationally renowned for highly original work that represents a dialogue with the natural world, participating in its rhythms, distances and raw materials.

He explores subjects of space, time, and human presence in the landscape, often through simple but arduous creative acts such as gruelling epic walks in harsh wilderness environments. Along the way he leaves traces of his journey with primal marks or sculptures made from stone, mud or wood, which capture the essence of a place or a feeling, while reflecting at the same time on motion and change.

Long records these acts, and his experiences, in photographs, maps and prose. More than most of his generation of “land artists”, he has successfully linked the largely ephemeral core of his work to the language of the gallery exhibit, bringing meditative images, text works and powerfully elemental sculptures to wide audiences around the world.

CIWEM’s Executive Director, Nick Reeves OBE says: “Richard Long's observations of the weather, animals, plants and human activity capture the experience of loneliness, and otherness, in a world governed by the cycles and power of nature. His unique practice shows an artist totally in tune with the environment, and defines a context for our consideration of the way we choose to inhabit the planet. We congratulate him on this and for being such a worthy winner of the 2012 CIWEM/CCANW Art, Water and Environment Award.”

On receiving news of the Award Richard Long RA said:

“I am extremely thrilled to have been awarded the CIWEM/CCANW AWEinspiring Award.”

  1. The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, CIWEM, is an independent professional body and a registered charity, advancing the science and practice of water and environmental management for a clean, green and sustainable world.
  2. To find out more about CIWEM’s Arts and Environment Network, please go to www.ciwem.org/arts.
  3. For more information on the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, please go to http://www.ccanw.co.uk/
  4. For more information about Richard Long RA and his work, please go to the website of his London dealer, the Haunch of Venison, www.haunchofvenison.com.

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