Originally a sculptor, British-born photographer Hamish Fulton has made it his life’s work to do something many of us take for granted: walk. Part conceptual art, part pilgrimage, part Emersonian communion with nature, part mystical journey, Fulton’s work is based on the literal and philosophical act of undertaking an extended journey by foot and the subsequent relationship of his art to that experience.
In this, he follows traditions “practiced by Native Americans; the walk as pastoral English custom; the walk as a union of the Dionysian and the Apollonian” in the hope of bringing “the active and the contemplative life in balance.” – from the artist’s biography
Published in 1977, Nine Works is collection of photographs of wilderness landscapes (with a smattering of text). A thread binds these diverse landscapes - from the Western United States to Bolivia and Iceland and other unspecified locations. It is unclear whether the peripatetic artist has, in fact, walked these paths and wide-open, alien landscapes or not. However, it appears - in these images of a General Custer battlefield, polar bear tracks and ancient hieroglyphics, among other environments - that Fulton is on a trail, following clues. Toward what is unclear. But Nine Works is another compelling piece in Fulton’s ceaseless search. Perhaps further proof walking can be an end in itself.
