While land artist Richard Long has tramped the earth in an attempt to understand its mass, Tim Knowles walks to comprehend its power. His art is beholden to the vagaries of the British weather, and in particular the wind, which he follows doggedly across the countryside wearing a Heath Robinson-style device that indicates its direction and the path he should follow. These journeys have ranged from a perilous two-day excursion across Dartmoor to wandering through the lamp-lit streets of London at midnight. Each of these endeavours is captured on film. When Knowles returns to the studio, he refers to the GPS and redraws the route, creating a finely wrought image that charts his meandering walk across the countryside. These expeditions were inspired by a hot-air balloon accident in which Knowles broke his leg. Far from scaring him off adventure for life, the frustrating period of recuperation proved the spur for a series of arduous challenges. Perhaps the riskiest was an ongoing project he calls Nightwalks, a series of excursions across the countryside conducted during new moons last year. The artist sets up a large-format camera on a long exposure, then scales treacherous ridges and inches along precipices for an hour while carrying three flashlights. The resulting images reveal thin streaks of amber light, shuddering across the pitch black. Each photograph, film or abstract drawing recording these explorations reveals the bravery, absurdity and irrationality of Knowles's work – reminiscent of the Dutch artist Bas Jan Alder, who glorified endeavour and failures alike. The results are intrinsically beautiful, charting one man's lonely and often whimsical relationship with the natural world, played out across the expanses of the British Isles.
LINK to GUARDIAN artist of the week 44
please check Tim Knowles website for more info and projects
all photos from Tim Knowles Website
