The Art of Walking: A Field Guide - Softcover

David Evans

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907317872 ISBN 13: 9781907317873

Publisher: Black Dog Publishing London UK, 2013

Synopsis

The Art of Walking: a field guide is the first extensive survey of walking in contemporary art. An introduction relates peripatetic art now to a wide range of historic precedents, and is followed by a series of visually led Walks dealing with seven overlapping themes: footprints and lines; writers and philosophers; marches and processions; aliens, dandies and drifters; slapstick; studios, museums and biennales; and dog walkers. The guide includes newly commissioned art and writing, and many artists have been actively involved in the design of their respective pages. Contributors include Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Francis Al˙s, And While London Burns, Keith Arnatt, Franko B, David Bate, Dara Birnbaum, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Janet Cardiff, Marcus Coates, Jeremy Deller, Tim Edgar, Christian Edwardes, Jan Estep, Simon Faithfull, Alec Finlay, Hamish Fulton, Regina José Galindo, Al Gebra, Mona Hatoum, Akira Kanayama, Oleg Kulik, Peter Liversidge, Long March Project, Richard Long, Melanie Manchot, Conor McGarrigle, Bruce Nauman, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Ingrid Pollard, Simon Pope, Chloé Regan, Sophy Rickett, Fiona Robinson, Matthias Sperling and Siobhan Davies Studios, Susan Stockwell, Krzysztof Wodiczko and Catherine Yass.

About this title

Review:

'...without a doubt inspiring; each page invites us to follow our own path towards the mediative action of walking and to move, consciously, towards a creative life.' --Sphere

'This overview of artworks dealing with walking completely took me by surprise. I was expecting psychogeography, peripatetics, geolocation and theory. But The Art of Walking: A Field Guide is not only light on words, it also follows themes that range from aliens to slapstick to dog walking. The way the content is illustrated is worth a mention too. There are the usual photos that document performances of course but also letters, preparatory drawings, souvenir programme, etc. The succession of images for each artwork allows the reader to fill in the dots, complete the short presentation text and create their own narrative. The author even asked some of the artists to participate in the editorial process. For example, The Art of Walking opens on a series of proposals that artist Peter Liversidge wrote down on his old typewriter for the author of the book, for himself or for the reader. He invites you to put down the book and go outside, for example. And following his suggestion, the book closes on 5 empty pages for you to write down notes. The book was thus nothing I expected. And that's never a bad thing.' --we-make-money-not-art.com/

About the Author:

David Evans is a writer and picture editor, based in Bournemouth, England. Recent works include Appropriation (The Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press, 2009), László Moholy-Nagy: 60 Fotos (Errata Editions, 2011) and Critical Dictionary (Black Dog Publishing, 2011).

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Dog Publishing London UK
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1907317872
• ISBN 13: 9781907317873
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: David Evans