Walking Drawings: Erase

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

‘Walking Drawings: Across the Estuaries’ was a live public artistic performance that took place on Silecroft Beach in Cumbria. Using a combination of freehand and mechanical tools to create his drawings, EVEWRIGHT enlisted 15 Shire horses with their riders on the first day, and members of the public on the second day, to walk the lines of his art to bring it to life. The experience is poetically captured on film and still photography, from various perspectives, including the vantage point of a 100ft platform placed at the location. Walking Drawings is about leaving an imprint on the land and capturing a fleeting moment in time that cannot be experienced again. Inspiration came from scientists’ theories about how the ancient Nazca people created drawings in the deserts of Southern Peru. By pacing and walking upon the surface of the reddish sands, they revealed the white ground below to create drawings in the sand. The coastline is a place where the sea deposits, as well as removes, life and materials. A transitional space, it evokes ideas around migration and journeys.

EVEWRIGHT (Everton Wright) (born 1964) is a British artist with parentage from Jamaica. He is a multi-disciplinary visual installation artist who challenges public environments to make space for Black British stories. He explores the intricate connections between the body and our experience of the modern environment. He studied graphic design at Middlesex University and mixed media painting at Central St Martins College of Art. He trained in film and video production at Four Corners London. Group and solo exhibitions include: Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London; Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, 2013; ELECTRONICS ALIVE VIII Biennial, Tampa, Florida, 2015; BFI British Film Institute, 2018; Migration Museum, London, 2019; V&A Friday Night Late, London, 2019. Awards and Shortlists: Walking Drawings Across the Estuaries Shortlisted for Young Master Art Prize, 2014; The People’s Choice Prize and Shortlisted For Channel 5 Great British Art Prize (Walking Drawings, Camber Sands, UK), 2004.

Places

Subjects

sea & coastal features, sea, beach, estuary, human figure, sand

Materials & Techniques

photographic paper, Fujicolour Crystal Archive paper, C-type photograph

Artist

Everton Wright (1964 - )

Title

Walking Drawings: Erase

Edition

One of an edition of 30, plus 2 artist's proofs

Date

2012

Medium

C-type photograph on paper

Dimensions

height: 53.7 cm; width: 79.2 cm; depth: 4.5 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-21

Provenance

The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 19 March 2021

GAC number

18938