Spy something in the landscape that strikes you as compelling / unusual / fitting.
Make two attempts to mimic its contours. Try to embody it.
Using the timer on your camera, document both attempts.
Give the photographs a title, say, Two attempts to look like a tree with varying degrees of success (2022).
© David Eckersley.
David Eckersley: Mimic the Landscape (Field Trip : A Collective Playbook for Making Art in the Outdoors)
In connection with Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art’s group exhibition Hinterlands (22 October 2022-30 April 2023), Foundation Press invited people to contribute their ideas to this collective book. Through an open call, we asked for written instructions proposing ways of making art in the landscape.
To take part we are asking for the following:
1. Write a simple instruction (no more than 60 words) guiding someone to make something in the landscape.
2. Follow your own prompt to create an example.
The exhibition Hinterlands is rooted in the landscape of the North East of England, whilst many of the instructions in this book suggest we get out into nature, we hope the instructions are flexible enough to be transposed to different places and situations – wherever you might find yourself. Ultimately instructions are stepping stones for you to shape your own process and ideas.
This book celebrates brief moments of creative play – the unpredictable coming together of people in a place trying something out. It contains 35 instructions proposing ways that you could make something ‘in the landscape’. Whether these prompts sow the seeds for further making or perhaps simply produce an out-of-the- ordinary moment, we hope you enjoy the trip.
