By Unveilral
@unveilral
Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) has embarked on an ambitious project, ‘Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape’ in partnership with the Dartmoor Preservation Association. This collaboration between the arts and the environment is exciting to see, especially as a way to engage the local community as well as encourage others to think deeply about Dartmoor and what makes it so special.
Although ever-popular, landscape photography can sometimes feel tired. This exhibition re-invigorates the genre and showcases the breadth and achievement of contemporary photographers working in the medium. Featuring 20 artists, ‘Dartmoor: Radical Landscape’ showcases iconic Dartmoor artists who work with nature, such as Susan Derges, whose life’s work is intrinsically linked to the local rivers, flora, and moon that shines upon them.
RAMM has also commissioned two major new works on the landscape by internationally renowned artist Alex Hartley and filmmaker Ashish Ghadiali, whose work is inspired by RAMM’s Dartmoor-related collections. These commissions not only help to foster artists creating work responding to the environment, but also brings new eyes to the landscape for interpretation.
The exhibition reaches back into history in two ways: the physical stones in the landscape, moved by ancient peoples, and the use of archival photographs from both Edwardian times by Ahish Ghadiali and recent history, such as those made by James Ravilious (1939 - 1999).
In conversation with Lara Goodband, Curator of 'Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape' at RAMM:
Unveilral: In what ways have artists contested or re-imagined the history of Dartmoor and the people who have visited?
Lara Goodband: Dartmoor exists in the cultural imagination as a place of freedom and wilderness, but it is also a contested landscape and a microcosm of urgent issues facing Britain today. Concerns about the interconnected ecological crisis and climate breakdown, as well as who has access to the land, are explored by artists in this exhibition through collaborations with climate scientists, protestors and other experts. The implications of the enclosure and extraction of land resources – such as tin, peat and forests – on Dartmoor’s environment, ecosystems and biodiversity today inform critically engaged art.
In the late 1960s, artists in the UK and US left the studio to go into the landscape, creating radical new forms of art that came to be known as ‘Land Art’. Artists designated walks and ephemeral objects placed in the landscape as art. Landscape became subject, studio and inspiration. This exhibition begins with important conceptual artworks from the late 1960s and early 1970s that place Dartmoor at the heart of international developments in Land Art. Innovative American artist Nancy Holt; influential British artist, Richard Long, and experimental feminist artist Marie Yates all shared an attitude to making art.
Scientists agree that the UK is now the most nature-depleted area of Europe. Our insect, bird and wild mammal populations have fallen dramatically since the 1970s, with many now on the verge of extinction. Dartmoor is no exception. The rapid decline in biodiversity means that not all life can thrive. This has led to debates about how land is managed and who has access to it. Against the backdrop of this crisis, the museum commissioned ecologically conscious contemporary artists Ashish Ghadiali and Alex Hartley to make work for this exhibition. Both based in Devon, their concern for the earth and our interconnected relationship with the natural world guides their thinking. Their new installations have been informed by working with climate scientists and an engagement with deep time, recognising that we are now living in a new geologic epoch called the Anthropocene.
The exhibition also features a range of incredible work by Garry Fabian Miller across his long career. In 2008 he said,
“My experience of walking on the moor is about entering an ancient place. … It’s like being with something that happened and holds millions of years of time. I was heavily influenced by James Lovelock, a prophetic figure in addressing the destruction of the earth through human activity. Through 2004 my dominant thought was how can I come to terms with the fact we are going to destroy ourselves, how to deal with this enormity?”
Unveilral: Magic, folklore, and myth are associated with British Woodlands, particularly in Dartmoor. It can be seen as the antithesis (and even antidote) to capitalistic city life, which is becoming rarer in the UK due to urban sprawl. In what ways do you think the exhibition explores these themes?
Lara Goodband: Tanoa Sasraku’s foraging for earth pigments and re-use of materials point to her ‘call for conservation’, which she explores through otherworldly, even magical connections to nature and our entanglement with it. ‘The River’, a photographic series by Siân Davey, focuses on the relationship between the river Dart and family and friends along a short stretch close to her home, which she visits daily, often swimming in the early morning. Describing the process of making this work, she says,
“It was just extraordinary being down here. Just transcending the ordinary into other worlds: being here and really deeply noticing and attuning myself to how people inhabit space. … I pray to the river spirits, you know, and I think about Dartmoor and I think about how ancient this land is. … The big issue at the moment is pollution. If we treat the Earth like we want to be treated ourselves then we can live in harmony.”
The large-scale, camera-less photographic series by Susan Derges titled ‘Eden’ were made along a short section of the river Taw at Skaigh valley on one night. Describing the title of the series, Derges says it,
“also represents to me an ideal - of belonging and participating within the natural functioning of the world, rather than looking on from the perspective of an exceptional or privileged position outside of it [they speak of] the incredible energy and complexity of one small part of Dartmoor’s torrent rivers that would speak for the elemental qualities of them all”.
‘The Summoning Stones’, a new commissioned sculptural work made especially for the exhibition by Alex Hartley from recycled solar photo-voltaic panels, hand-dyed inkjet prints and granite boulders with solar thermal tubes was realised through research at the museum and in its stores where he searched for what he describes as ‘a resonant magic object’. He found that RAMM’s Kingsteignton figure, a 2000-year-old wooden human figure on display on the ground floor, contained the same ‘vibrant energy’ that he detected in Dartmoor’s stone circles. His invitation is for the visitor to the exhibition to stand at the centre of his installation,
“to basically be plugged into the main frame. I want the energy of these rocks to transfer into the viewer. It's almost certainly unachievable, but I really have that as the goal for it”.
Unveilral: It would be remiss not to include protest documentation in an exhibition called ‘Radical’. I have been a photographer for (and a member of) the environmental group Right to Roam in London, so I have been closely following the campaign for wild camping to remain on Dartmoor. Fern Leigh Albert’s work shows the campaign and protest on Dartmoor to keep it accessible for wild camping, are there any other works which you view as a protest?
Lara Goodband: That’s so good to hear. Fern Leigh Albert is an artist and photographer who has lived on Dartmoor since 2013. Her photographic practice concentrates on land use and low-impact living. Albert’s photographs have been published in the national press, including the Financial Times and on the BBC and Sky News. She was a member of Steward Community Woodland photographed by David Spero in his series borrowed from the V&A displayed in the exhibition. Spero has, since 2004, questioned how we might live sustainably by recording communities who are exploring low impact ways of living. His photographic series show a way of life that challenges the mainstream, suggesting different narratives for our future. Practicing permaculture, the Steward Community Woodland grew food, generated electricity from nearby streams and solar panels, and built dwellings from locally sourced and recycled materials. Spero’s photographs chart its evolution up to 2019, when permanent planning permission was refused, and the seven resident households were forced to dismantle all non-agricultural buildings and leave the woods. Spero said,
“To build and live in a low impact settlement transforms the act of protest into a more holistic form, to a living demonstration of what is possible – pushing boundaries, stretching and challenging the imagination. It creates spaces where alternatives can be traced out and given room to evolve and grow.”
With growing awareness about the toxicity of photographic chemistry and the medium’s reliance on extractive processes, Jo Bradford has developed a plant-based seal for her prints that incorporates locally produced beeswax and is nurturing willow trees to manage waste from her Dartmoor studio sustainably. This new way of working is a form of protest challenging the mainstream suppliers of chemical printing methods.
RAMM invited Ashish Ghadiali, a multidisciplinary artist and the founding director of the climate justice agency Radical Ecology, to create a new moving image work. Ghadiali chose to work with RAMM’s 19th-century lantern slides depicting stone rows, circles and standing stones on Dartmoor. Inspired by a conversation with the Gaia theorist James Lovelock in the final year of his life, Ghadiali’s installation explores how we might find what he refers to as,
“new ways of living on the earth, through the recognition of “different temporalities”: here, the time of a river and the time of a human body”.
Unveilral: Many of the works involved touch on the aims of ‘Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape’s lead exhibition partner, Dartmoor Preservation Association. What influence do you hope the exhibition will have on preserving Dartmoor?
Lara Goodband: These artists have a deep and continuing connection to what this rural place keeps giving, creatively. Approaches to making and subject matter convey an openness, even within the specifics of the place, giving the work wide appeal. Works stand in for universal themes: Robert Darch’s images of the Ten Tors Challenge describe a rite of passage for young people, while Fern Leigh Albert’s commitment to engaging with and documenting the wild camping protests have made visible both the campaign and aspects of Dartmoor’s cultural life right across the world through international news outlets. Other artists who grew up on Dartmoor, such as Nicholas J.R. White, carry the place with them, imaginatively, as they explore new landscapes. And this is what I think the exhibition can do. I’ve had so many comments from visitors about the transformative effective of the exhibition both from those who live on Dartmoor, such as this recent comment:
“The exhibition was extraordinary. As soon as I entered the room I noticed that an immense amount of thought, care and curatorial experience has gone into making the exhibition not only a place to learn, but also a place to connect with the artists' deep and very personal stories about the Dartmoor landscape. … I've lived on Dartmoor for over thirty years. Seeing the exhibition has inspired me to experience my surroundings in a fresh way, which has made me feel more rooted in this special place.”
And those who have visited from afar, such as this from a visitor from London:
“I feel compelled to write as I found your exhibition on Dartmoor so incredibly moving and inspirational, beautifully installed and explained. I saw it at the very end of 2024, and it was without doubt one of my favourite exhibitions of the year. Thank you so much.”
Or a recent Devon-resident wrote:
“Such a thoughtful group of artists and some amazing works which got me thinking about Dartmoor in many different ways. I’m keen to get out and explore more of Dartmoor as it hasn’t been something we’ve done much of since moving to this part of the world”.
People who visit find a connection with the stone rows and wide, open spaces of Dartmoor. As Katharine Earnshaw and Laura Hopes point out, “there are ways of knowing and getting to the place through poetry, art, language, thinking and conversation”. If people love a place, then they’ll care for it and protect it.
In conversation with Tom Usher, the Chief Executive Officer of Dartmoor Preservation Association:
Unveilral: What drew you to partnering with RAMM on this project and has the Association embarked on anything like this before?
Tom Usher: The RAMM is a very important and much-loved, regional museum with an excellent reputation, we were pleased to be able to partner on this ground-breaking exhibition. One of the reasons we were keen was that there are many different ways of looking at and understanding Dartmoor, we were excited to bring these new ways of seeing to the public and the excellent curation team at the RAMM were able to do that.
The DPA has contributed to local Dartmoor arts and rural crafts before. From sponsoring local photographers and running children’s art competitions to partnering on local history exhibitions with the Museum of Dartmoor Life and supporting dying rural crafts like dry-stone walling.
Unveilral: What impact do you think this exhibition will have on Dartmoor, particularly in line with DPA’s vision for Dartmoor
Tom Usher: ‘Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape’ has introduced a cohort of new artists working in photographic medium to the public. It has highlighted the many and often contesting views on Dartmoor and given space for alternate viewpoints and opinions to be heard. This exhibition completely supports our vision of an inclusive Dartmoor, wild and free for all, a source of rest and livelihoods and adventures and spiritual nourishment, playing an important part in the national response to climate change.
You can still catch 'Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape' at RAMM until the 23rd of February 2025.
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