Hamish Fulton at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham

Hamish Fulton
15 February – 22 April 2012

This exhibition, a major collaboration between Ikon and Turner Contemporary, Margate is the first museum show for British artist Hamish Fulton (b. 1946, London) since his retrospective at Tate Britain in 2002. Fulton describes himself as a ‘walking artist’, with his work joining the two separate disciplines of walking and art.

In 1973, having walked over 1000 miles in 47 days from Duncansby Head to Land’s End, Fulton decided to ‘only make art resulting from the experience of individual walks.’ Since then the act of walking has remained central to his practice. He has stated ‘If I do not walk, I cannot make a work of art’ and has summed up this way of thinking in the simple statement of intent: ‘no walk, no work’. Calls for political independence, for Tibet and previously on behalf of Australian aborigines and North American Indians, also recur in Fulton’s work, corresponding to the individual and artistic freedom embodied within it.

For Ikon, Fulton presents new and existing vinyl wall pieces, each with a strong sense of place. They have ritualistic connotations, corresponding to walking activity and the meditative thought it can inspire, and touching on a wide range of non-art issues that preoccupy the artist. Specifically, they make reference to the ongoing struggle for Tibetan independence, China as an ascendant superpower, globalised travel and communications and mountainous landscape.

The latter comes into focus in light of the artist’s recent summiting of Mount Everest (or Chomolungma) on 19 May 2009, and made even more poignant given his Tibetan sympathies. This exhibition will be the first opportunity in the UK for audiences to see Fulton’s work relating to his ‘short walk’ on Everest.

Publications are a vital part of Fulton’s practice, as important as his photographic or large scale wall works. For the Ikon/Turner Contemporary exhibition he proposes a book that makes clear that his ‘art is not one activity (ie wordless art) [but rather] the joining of two entirely separate disciplines: walking and art’. There will be graphic layouts of selected wall texts, documentation of previous installations, direct graphics of photo text prints, various walks and milestone images and a section relating to walks around Margate and other parts of south east England.

Extensive artist’s notes will be complemented by an interview between Fulton and Erling Kagge, acclaimed Norwegian adventurer and the first person to have completed the ‘Three Poles Challenge’, having reached both the North and South Poles (1990, 1992/3), as well as summiting Mount Everest (1994). This inclusion reflects Fulton’s observation that he has more in common with mountain climbers than other artists.

A public walk with Hamish Fulton will take place in Birmingham during this exhibition.

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with Turner Contemporary, Margate, and supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.

Hamish Fulton’s exhibition Walk at Turner Contemporary runs from 17 January to 7 May 2012.