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And the snow melted in one breath
I said in an earlier post that I might return at some point to In the Field, the book of interviews with field recordists put together by Cathy Lane and Angus Carlyle of CRISAP. Here I want to...
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Geese Pond Mountain
In one of my earliest posts here I mentioned the tradition in China of carving short poetic inscriptions into the rock at scenic places, quoting one composed by the T'ang dynasty poet and prose writer...
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The Riddle of the Sands
By Jove, I've been reading The Riddle of the Sandsand realised it's a rather splendid landscape novel!'For miles in every direction lay a desert of sand. To the north it touched the horizon, and was...
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Traces
The Hayward Gallery's current exhibition Ana Mendieta: Traces is well worth a visit. Her Siluetas (1973-80) were an important contribution to the development of art in the landscape and I discussed...
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Diesel river
'Down by the shoreline with my back to the landI felt my feet sink down in the sandDown by the harbour standing all aloneI felt my heart grow heavy as a stone...'- The Weather Prophets, 'Almost...
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Inside the circle of fire
Three months ago I wrote about experiencing Chris Watson's tranquil Lindisfarne soundscape installation at Durham cathedral. Earlier this week I was in Sheffield, 'inside the circle of fire',...
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Collection of Sand
Collection of Sand joins our collection of CalvinosI don't know why it has taken twenty-nine years for Italo Calvino's Collezione di sabbia to appear in English but now it can be enjoyed here in Martin...
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Clouds and Mist in the Mountains
Ten landscape highlights from the V&A's exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900: (1) Possibly Yan Wenghui - Landscape with Pavilions (early 11th century)There is an aura of great age...
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The Walk
'I have to report that one fine morning, I do not know any more for sure what time it was, as the desire to take a walk came over me, I put my hat on my head, left my writing room, or room of phantoms,...
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Landscape with the Rape of Europa
The Wallace Collection has several fine pageant shields with dramatic mythological scenes, but this one is unusual: its dark steel surface is inlaid with a classical landscape. You might just be able...
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The New English Landscape
This week Ken Worpole was talking at the LRB bookshop about his latest collaboration with photographer Jason Orton, The New English Landscape. A full review of the book can be found on the...
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Envirographic instruments
Last week I visited the Architectural Association Gallery in London, where there is an exhibition devoted to the British Exploratory Land Archive, a collaboration between architects Mark Smout &...
View ArticleField of Reeds
This is my annual post on landscape music - the earlier ones (with apologies for a few dead links now) are here: 2010, 2011, 2012. I discussed a couple of excellent records earlier in the year so...
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A landscape built of pure life
Among the Convolutes of Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project (translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin MacLoughlin),one section is devoted to 'Ancient Paris, Catacombs, Demolitions, Decline of Paris.'...
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Where sea-grass tangles with shore-grass
The hard sand breaks,And the grains of itAre clear as wine.Far off over the leagues of it,The wind, Playing on the wide shore,Piles little ridges,And the great wavesBreak over it.These are the...
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Sketch of Anacapa Island
James McNeill Whistler, Sketch of Anacapa Island, 1854 Source: US National ArchivesIt could be said that we owe those vivid etchings currently on display in the Dulwich Picture Gallery's exhibition...
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Three-Mountain Pass
'Autumn Landscape'A sample page from Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hồ Xuân Hương made available on translator John Balaban's website.When the Copper Canyon Press published Spring Essence: The Poetry of...
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Our level pastures
Paul Nash, The Rye Marshes (1932) as a Shell PosterSource: Wikimedia CommonsA pretty miserable rainy day so we went this afternoon down to the London Museum and on our way popped into the Whitechapel...
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The Forest's Song
I was hoping to interest the family in a trip to Epping Forest today for a bit of new year Shinrin-yoku (restorative 'forest bathing'), but the heavy rain and fierce wind have put us all off. Instead I...
View ArticleA cold coming
John Akomfrah's film The Nine Muses (2010) is a poetic essay film on the immigrant experience, based on archival documentary footage and structured around The Odyssey and the muses of Greek mythology....
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