0:00:10 > 0:00:14'Thousands of years ago, Britain was covered in forest.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22'Deep, dark, primordial woodland
0:00:22 > 0:00:26'that had grown undisturbed for thousands of years.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37'These were the landscapes in which our predecessors
0:00:37 > 0:00:39'made their first homes.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46'But over the centuries, we hacked our way out of the forests
0:00:46 > 0:00:49'and built fields and pathways across the land.
0:01:02 > 0:01:04'And we made other marks in the landscape.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07'We made things of beauty...
0:01:10 > 0:01:13'..and in doing so turned nature...
0:01:14 > 0:01:16'..into culture.'
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Now, I can do something as simple as make a small stone circle
0:01:22 > 0:01:23on the beach here.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27Now, I'll admit it's not exactly Stonehenge,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29but it is a cultural act.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32It couldn't have happened without a human hand.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38'This basic act is the foundation of all human culture,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40'from stone circles onwards.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'But this film isn't about the monuments of the past.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49'It's about a marvellous kind of modern art
0:01:49 > 0:01:52'that echoes our earliest creative impulses.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57'And it's inspired me since I was a boy.'
0:01:57 > 0:02:01It's an art that can't be bought or sold, doesn't exist in galleries,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and has to be found before it can even be seen.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08It can be as vast as the sky or as small as a pebble.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11It can take decades, even centuries to make,
0:02:11 > 0:02:13yet occasionally only last an instant.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19'In this film, I'm going to discover art that's made
0:02:19 > 0:02:21'from nature itself.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26'Art that makes us think in a new way about the beauty and wonder of
0:02:26 > 0:02:30'the natural world, and the ways we mark our fleeting place within it.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36'I'll travel across Britain to find these breathtaking artworks
0:02:36 > 0:02:39'and explore the landscapes they inhabit.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43'I'll trek through forests and fields,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47'around gorgeous gardens, and to the very edges of our island.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51'And I'll gaze afresh at the skies above.
0:02:53 > 0:02:54'What I find will, I hope,
0:02:54 > 0:02:57'change the way we think about the landscape.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'And it might just change your view of modern art.'
0:03:40 > 0:03:43'This was the first landscape that humans on our island encountered.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50'6,000 years ago, forests like these covered most of Britain.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58'At times they must have seemed like dark and forbidding places.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04'But I always think there's something undeniably human
0:04:04 > 0:04:05'about the forest.'
0:04:10 > 0:04:15I often think of forests as being like societies.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20They are complex and infinitely interconnected communities,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and, of course, they're made up of individuals,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26all living their own lives in company.
0:04:31 > 0:04:34'Each tree stands alongside its companions.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39'They start small, grow tall, and die.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44'An existence not unlike our own.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53'We've always had an important relationship with the forest.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58'So much of human culture has been built from trees and wood.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03'And this connection has inspired one artist to
0:05:03 > 0:05:06'create a very special artwork.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15'I've come to Snowdonia in North Wales to find it.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22'But like many works of landscape art,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24'it's exceedingly difficult to find.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29'Its location is a secret.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33'But what a secret it is.'
0:05:47 > 0:05:49'This is Ash Dome.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00'22 ash trees mark out a perfect circle 30 feet wide.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09'I've been wanting to come here for as long as I've been
0:06:09 > 0:06:11'interested in art, and it's more beautiful
0:06:11 > 0:06:13'and more moving than I could have imagined.'
0:06:27 > 0:06:30'It is an inside made outside,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33'a circle of life made from life itself.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38'It reminds me of the great ancient circular
0:06:38 > 0:06:40'monuments of our predecessors.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45'But this is a work of modern art.'
0:06:55 > 0:06:59'Ash Dome was made by the artist David Nash, who has lived
0:06:59 > 0:07:02'and worked in North Wales since 1967.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07'In that time, Nash has devoted himself entirely to making
0:07:07 > 0:07:09'sculptures out of wood.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14'But Ash Dome was something different -
0:07:14 > 0:07:15'a living sculpture.'
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Most outdoor sculptures, I felt they were like UFOs,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23they'd been made somewhere else and they'd just landed.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28I wanted something which belonged to a place
0:07:28 > 0:07:32and something which didn't resist the elements but actually
0:07:32 > 0:07:37engaged with the elements, so the Ash Dome came from that thought.
0:07:41 > 0:07:47'Nash planted Ash Dome as saplings back in 1977, before I was born.'
0:07:49 > 0:07:53The '70s was a dangerous time, you know, politically,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56economically, internationally.
0:07:56 > 0:07:57People were talking about
0:07:57 > 0:08:02the human being would destroy itself before we got to the 21st century.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06And I thought, "I'll make a sculpture which is
0:08:06 > 0:08:08"aimed at the 21st century."
0:08:11 > 0:08:15'Nash employed ancient techniques to adapt the shape of each tree.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20'And over the years he has continued to tend and train them.'
0:08:22 > 0:08:26In all the different films and photographs of it over the years,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31since 1977, it gets bigger and I get older, which...!
0:08:31 > 0:08:34I really like that, so I'm hoping something will be there
0:08:34 > 0:08:36when I'm about 85, if I can get that far, 90,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39hobbling about in the Ash Dome!
0:08:52 > 0:08:56People talk today about modern culture being too fast,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59too disposable, too dispensable,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02too much about short-term satisfaction.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Well, this place couldn't be more different,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09because this beautiful, beautiful thing has taken the best part of
0:09:09 > 0:09:1440 years, the best part of one man's entire career, to make.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16And hopefully, like the forest that surrounds it,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20it will continue to grow for many years to come.
0:09:25 > 0:09:30'Ash Dome embodies the oldest idea of culture - to cultivate.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34'It is an art of collaboration, the result of man
0:09:34 > 0:09:36'and nature working together.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42'But it is also deeply contemporary,
0:09:42 > 0:09:47'a living monument to one man's faith in an uncertain future.'
0:10:17 > 0:10:20'When Neolithic settlers first arrived in Britain,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23'they brought with them wheat, barley and livestock,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26'and a new attitude towards the landscape.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31'Unlike native hunter-gatherers,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35'they weren't content to take the landscape as it came.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37'They wanted to reshape it.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42'They cut down ancient forest, cleared the land,
0:10:42 > 0:10:44'and parcelled it out for cultivation...
0:10:45 > 0:10:48'..and so emerged from the darkness of the wood
0:10:48 > 0:10:50'to the light of the field.'
0:10:52 > 0:10:55To us, a field might seem unremarkable,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57perhaps even rather quaint,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01but it really was one of the great inventions in the history of
0:11:01 > 0:11:04our species, because the field didn't only lead to a new
0:11:04 > 0:11:07kind of organised landscape,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11it also laid the foundations for the first towns and cities,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14societies and governments, and for trade and commerce.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18The field, in other words, was the bedrock of civilisation itself.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32'Today, three quarters of land in Britain is devoted to agriculture.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40'More than anything else, it is the field that has shaped our landscape.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54'This is Cumbria, the heart of sheep-farming country.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58'It's a patchwork of small fields,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02'formed by the dry-stone walls that weave across the land.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07'Few have been more inspired by this landscape
0:12:07 > 0:12:10'than the celebrated artist Andy Goldsworthy.'
0:12:11 > 0:12:14The fields to most people, and the landscape to a lot of people,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18is often a pastoral backdrop to weekends in the country,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21which is not how I see the landscape.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24For me, it is a place to be challenged and to learn,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28and the field particularly so
0:12:28 > 0:12:33is a place which farmers cultivate and fight for.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37It is a battlefield for the farmer.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Without their constant attention
0:12:40 > 0:12:43and working the land it will revert back to being a woodland.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53'Andy Goldsworthy is best known for the ephemeral works
0:12:53 > 0:12:55'he makes in the landscape.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02'Short-lived, delicate sculptures...
0:13:04 > 0:13:08'..using only the materials he finds around him.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21'But some of Goldsworthy's work engages directly with
0:13:21 > 0:13:23'the age-old traditions of agriculture.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31'From 1996, over a period of seven years,
0:13:31 > 0:13:35'he transformed 46 disused sheep folds across Cumbria...
0:13:39 > 0:13:42'..into a series of beautiful outdoor sculptures.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48'These dry-stone-wall enclosures were originally
0:13:48 > 0:13:52'used for the cleaning, clipping and marking of the flock
0:13:52 > 0:13:55'before modern farming techniques rendered them redundant.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03'And in a quiet valley in the heart of the Lake District
0:14:03 > 0:14:04'is my favourite -
0:14:06 > 0:14:09'the Tilberthwaite Touchstone Fold.'
0:14:19 > 0:14:22Now, at first, this seems to be an ordinary sheep fold.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25It's got these dry-stone walls that would have contained the flock,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28there would have been a gate right here.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32But what Andy Goldsworthy's done is he's made four beautiful
0:14:32 > 0:14:37additions into the walls themselves, and this is one of them.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It's an absolutely beautiful sculpture,
0:14:40 > 0:14:44made from slate from the surrounding Tilberthwaite quarries.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47And what's lovely about it is the way that Goldsworthy has
0:14:47 > 0:14:51arranged the stone to create a beautiful visual rhythm.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54So you've got these horizontal bands of stone here,
0:14:54 > 0:14:57then you've got this circular plane with vertical bands of stone.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00It almost looks like a clock face.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02And on a bright, sunny day like today,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05the stone really seems to shimmer.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36What's fascinating about these sculptures is their position,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39so that they're all activated by the sun at different times of the day.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41So it's about mid-morning now.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44That sculpture back there is in complete shadow,
0:15:44 > 0:15:47and this one over here, it was in shadow about ten minutes ago,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50but now the sun has just come round the edge, and it is creating
0:15:50 > 0:15:54this glorious, raking light across the surface of the slate.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06'The Sheep Fold Project is a reminder of that ancient
0:16:06 > 0:16:09'link between culture and agriculture.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14'After all, the building of dry-stone walls,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18'and indeed farming itself, is an intensely sculptural activity.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24'And like art, it too can be beautiful.'
0:16:41 > 0:16:45'Andy Goldsworthy lives and works not far from the Cumbrian Hills,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47'in the Scottish Borders.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52'Every morning, he walks out into the fields around his home to
0:16:52 > 0:16:54'make a work in the landscape.
0:16:56 > 0:16:57'And today I'm joining him.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04'He hopes to produce an ambitious but risky piece,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09'building a vertical stone wall into the shell of a dead oak tree.'
0:17:20 > 0:17:24The reason why I love to work with my hands is that friction.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28There is this terrific,
0:17:28 > 0:17:33wonderful resistance to the land that challenges you.
0:17:37 > 0:17:43It creates sensations and feelings that inform me as an artist.
0:17:54 > 0:18:00What I do love about walls is the way they're made, stone by stone.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08They're a great lesson to sculptors,
0:18:08 > 0:18:09they use the stone from the place,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12they use the stone for its structure,
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and the line that they often take will draw the landscape,
0:18:15 > 0:18:18so they're very much an expression of the landscape.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27'But despite his deep knowledge of wall making,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31'this particular work is proving extremely challenging.'
0:18:34 > 0:18:36So, Andy, you've been working on this for
0:18:36 > 0:18:39four-and-a-half, five hours now. It looks fantastic to me.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41What's your verdict?
0:18:41 > 0:18:43I think it's probably not going to...
0:18:45 > 0:18:47..going to succeed.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51I'm getting closer to the top, it was closer than the last collapse.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54I've got a better sense of the...the tree,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and there's certain aspects of it that I'm not entirely happy...
0:18:58 > 0:19:01I'm beginning to really enjoy this kind of line there
0:19:01 > 0:19:02between the stone and the wood.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05You know, so that rakes really well.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09So, whilst I would probably be... I'm not going to be entirely happy
0:19:09 > 0:19:11if it does fall down, it does give me
0:19:11 > 0:19:14the chance to go back down to there and get it reworked.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18- And if it does fall, you'll start again?- I might start...
0:19:18 > 0:19:21I mean, I think it's probably reached a point in the day
0:19:21 > 0:19:23where it would be better coming again.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25This is a work that I can't come back to.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Unlike a lot of the things that I make, that is a one-off,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32that-time-only to make that particular work.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41'Andy continues to build the wall upwards.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48'But then, after hours of hard work,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51'what he feared happens.'
0:19:51 > 0:19:53- Oh! - STONES RATTLE
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Normally with a collapse like that I would be feeling a little
0:20:12 > 0:20:16devastated, and whilst I would have loved to have had this completed,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20I think that, er, it's probably,
0:20:20 > 0:20:24erm, for the better in that I can get back and rework
0:20:24 > 0:20:28some of this, but I haven't got the energy to do that again today.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44You know, I've seen something today that's really reminded me
0:20:44 > 0:20:47of what art can be.
0:20:47 > 0:20:52No dealer, no gallery, no pretentious display caption.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56A man simply walked out one morning into nature,
0:20:56 > 0:21:00found inspiration, and made something really rather wonderful.
0:21:03 > 0:21:08'Andy Goldsworthy's piece didn't last more than a few hours,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12'but that, I think, is precisely what makes it so special,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14'because like nature itself,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17'his work is in a state of perpetual change.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24'Several months later, Andy attempted the tree wall again,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26'and comes within inches of completing it.'
0:21:34 > 0:21:36STONES RATTLE
0:21:41 > 0:21:46'Seeing Andy's piece collapse again is heartbreaking,
0:21:46 > 0:21:49'but his determination to succeed is an inspiration.'
0:21:52 > 0:21:54You know, perfection's really easy to do.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00But it's a matter of how much time you have to put into achieving
0:22:00 > 0:22:05that perfection, and I think that every day I go out, er, there is
0:22:05 > 0:22:08a sort of compromise with the day.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54'We collaborated with nature in the forest,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57'we intervened in nature in the field,
0:22:57 > 0:23:02'but here, on the coast, it can often feel like a battle.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11'The repeated clash of water and rock has sculpted the perimeter
0:23:11 > 0:23:16'of our land, and will continue to do so long after we're gone.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27'But in this turbulent environment, one artist has tested herself
0:23:27 > 0:23:29'and her art against the rhythms of the sea.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37'In the early 1990s, Julie Brook spent two years living
0:23:37 > 0:23:41'in a cave on the island of Jura, off the west coast of Scotland.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51'Her intention was to capture the harsh beauty of the island in paint.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55'But the experience of living in solitude in such an exposed
0:23:55 > 0:23:59'landscape changed the way she made and thought about her practice.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06'She wanted to create a kind of art that encapsulated
0:24:06 > 0:24:09'the elemental forces that were all around her.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14'The result was an extraordinary combination of fire,
0:24:14 > 0:24:15'stone and water -
0:24:17 > 0:24:20'what Julie Brook called her Firestacks.'
0:24:40 > 0:24:44'I've made the long journey across Britain to the Outer Hebrides.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50'A landscape of rugged mountains and spectacular sea lochs.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01'It's far from any road, and two hours' hike from the nearest track.'
0:25:05 > 0:25:09This is one of the most remote parts of the British Isles.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12That over there, that's the Atlantic Ocean, and I've come here
0:25:12 > 0:25:18because, after 25 years, Julie Brook is once again making a firestack.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31'Julie has been here for several days already in all weathers,
0:25:31 > 0:25:36'collecting stones to build the stack as well as fuel to burn.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42'She can only build at low tide, and twice a day,
0:25:42 > 0:25:44'she has to surrender her progress to the sea.'
0:25:52 > 0:25:53So, Julie...
0:25:53 > 0:25:54Wow, amazing, you're here!
0:25:56 > 0:25:59It is the most remote place I can possibly imagine.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Can you tell me where we are and what this place actually is?
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Yes, it's, er, it's a very remote part on the west side of Lewis,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10just sort of, erm, with North Harris just on its edge,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12and we're looking right out to the western Atlantic.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14So that's the Atlantic over there.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Nothing, yes, nothing much beyond there, apart from when you,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19erm, get to America, I guess.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21It does feel like a full ocean of wind is...
0:26:21 > 0:26:25- Yeah.- ..hitting us right now. How long have you been making this?
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Well, erm, five, six days of building this particular stack,
0:26:28 > 0:26:33and then, erm, a previous ten days of building another series prior
0:26:33 > 0:26:36to that to, er, get a sense of the tides here,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40the way the water flows, the way the tides are coming in, erm,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42so, yeah, they're labour intensive.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44So now this firestack's up and running,
0:26:44 > 0:26:46- what is going to happen next? - Well, you'll see,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48the tide is just beginning to come to the base of it, which is
0:26:48 > 0:26:52really exciting, so I'm going to start lighting it quite soon,
0:26:52 > 0:26:56and then you get this extraordinary quality of, you know,
0:26:56 > 0:26:59the elements all coming together, so you've got the water surrounding
0:26:59 > 0:27:02the fire and stone, and then gradually you watch it rising
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and you get these incredible ribbons of light from the reflection
0:27:06 > 0:27:10of the fire, and it's sort of so much about rhythm,
0:27:10 > 0:27:13it's like marking rhythm and marking time, erm,
0:27:13 > 0:27:15in such an elemental way.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23'With the tide rising fast, Julie is keen to start the fire.'
0:27:30 > 0:27:34'The Firestack works can be dangerous and unpredictable.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41'A sudden shift in weather could destroy everything in an instant.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49'Julie makes countless journeys out into the freezing sea
0:27:49 > 0:27:50'to build up the fire.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54'Like a silent vigil...
0:27:54 > 0:27:56'engulfed by flame and smoke.'
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I remember when I first lit one successfully.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04It felt so absolutely true.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10I felt that I was sort of connecting with something incredibly ancient,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14without specifically knowing what that was.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19That connection with nature that some people around the world
0:28:19 > 0:28:22still have very, very strongly is a very profound thing.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28By working, committing and inhabiting the landscape,
0:28:28 > 0:28:30in a sense I'm looking for that connection that
0:28:30 > 0:28:33I see crofters have here or fishermen have here,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36and I think it's something about the purity of that.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51'Humans have made markers on the coast for millennia.
0:28:51 > 0:28:57'Stone cairns, flaming beacons, monoliths, lighthouses...
0:28:57 > 0:29:02'and, for me, the Firestack seems to tap into those ancient practices.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05'It too is a marker of human presence.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12'With the fire burning brightly,
0:29:12 > 0:29:15'Julie makes her last journey to the stack.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23'And then she retreats, leaving the elements to decide its fate.'
0:29:30 > 0:29:31'As the sun begins to set,
0:29:31 > 0:29:35'the fire's reflections dance on the sea like liquid gold.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39'For a few glorious moments,
0:29:39 > 0:29:42'the elements are in perfect balance,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45'and the result is spellbinding.'
0:30:22 > 0:30:25'But as the water creeps higher and higher,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28'the flames begin to lose their battle with the sea.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34'The fire gently weakens...
0:30:39 > 0:30:42'..before being completely overwhelmed.'
0:30:59 > 0:31:03You know, some people might not think of this as art at all,
0:31:03 > 0:31:08but as I stand here on a cold winter's night
0:31:08 > 0:31:11in the Outer Hebrides, I honestly can't
0:31:11 > 0:31:13think of anything more artistic,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16because if this work is about anything, it is
0:31:16 > 0:31:20about the act of creation, an ancient act in which humans
0:31:20 > 0:31:25have tried to create light and warmth in a cold, dark world.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52'As the human presence on our island increased,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55'so too have the marks we've left on the landscape.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58'We began to draw lines.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02'From creative acts like the chalk figures carved in the landscape
0:32:02 > 0:32:05'to the great routes laid down in our own age.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12'Lines that shape and are shaped by our movements.'
0:32:20 > 0:32:23'And one British artist has turned these kinds of lines
0:32:23 > 0:32:27'into a body of work that is revered around the world.'
0:32:34 > 0:32:37'In 1967, Richard Long walked up
0:32:37 > 0:32:41'and down on a single patch of ground until he left a clean
0:32:41 > 0:32:45'straight line of trampled grass that glistened in the sun.'
0:32:49 > 0:32:53'The piece was called 'A Line Made By Walking.'
0:32:55 > 0:32:57'And it is only known by a simple photograph...
0:32:59 > 0:33:02'..that is now viewed as a defining work of contemporary art.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06'With that piece, Richard Long established
0:33:06 > 0:33:10'a set of principles that would govern the rest of his career.'
0:33:16 > 0:33:19Art can be made anywhere, perhaps seen by few people,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21or not recognised as art when they do.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33This is a sculpture I made along a walk in Yorkshire called
0:33:33 > 0:33:35'A Line In England.'
0:33:37 > 0:33:39This work was made of this place,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41it is a rearrangement of it,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43and in time, will be reabsorbed by it.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Now it is almost invisible.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55I hope to make work for the land, not against it.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58My work reflects the passage of time on all things,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00just as a walk itself uses time.
0:34:18 > 0:34:19'This is Exmoor in North Devon.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25'And it was here, a year after 'A Line Made By Walking,'
0:34:25 > 0:34:29'that Richard Long embarked on a more ambitious walking piece.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35'His aim was to travel exactly 10 miles across the moor on foot...
0:34:37 > 0:34:40'..but he didn't want to follow the various paths that
0:34:40 > 0:34:41'criss-crossed the moor.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46'He wanted to do something a little more challenging.'
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Richard Long began with an Ordnance Survey map,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56and a pencil.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01He marked one point down here
0:35:01 > 0:35:05and he marked another point up here,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08and then he took a ruler and drew
0:35:08 > 0:35:11a dead straight line between them,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15just like that.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Now, that line marked a route exactly 10 miles long
0:35:18 > 0:35:22on a bearing of about 290 degrees,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25and once Long had plotted that route,
0:35:25 > 0:35:26he decided to walk it.
0:35:37 > 0:35:42'And so I began a journey following Long's imaginary line.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48'It quickly passed from cultivated fields to rugged moorland.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57'But it didn't follow the natural contours of the terrain.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03'It cut a dead straight line across the land.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11'It came close to, and often intersected with
0:36:11 > 0:36:13'more established paths.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21'But then it quickly abandoned them.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27'I had to clamber past trees...
0:36:29 > 0:36:30'..to leap over fences...
0:36:34 > 0:36:36'..and to pass icy ponds.'
0:36:40 > 0:36:41I've been walking for a while now,
0:36:41 > 0:36:43and I'm beginning to realise that
0:36:43 > 0:36:47while it's very easy to draw a straight line on a map,
0:36:47 > 0:36:52it's much, much harder to walk a straight line across the landscape,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55even in a relatively featureless place like Exmoor,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58because everywhere there are obstacles,
0:36:58 > 0:37:00there are fences, there are puddles and divots
0:37:00 > 0:37:05and bogs, and then of course you have to fight that perennial human
0:37:05 > 0:37:09instinct to take the easier route, to take the well trodden path.
0:37:17 > 0:37:19'The walk carried me forward, north-west...
0:37:23 > 0:37:27'..past other earlier lines that had been made in the landscape.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37'But then, after 10 miles,
0:37:37 > 0:37:43'I descended from the moor into steep, thick, shaded woodland.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46'This is where Richard Long's line terminates.'
0:37:51 > 0:37:55So, according to Richard Long's map,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57this precise spot here in
0:37:57 > 0:38:01this place called Cowley Wood, this is the destination.
0:38:03 > 0:38:08And I'll be honest with you, after 10 miles of walking,
0:38:08 > 0:38:09I was expecting more.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16'It is a work that creates more questions than answers.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21'This map, with a line drawn through it, is all that
0:38:21 > 0:38:23'remains of Long's walk.
0:38:25 > 0:38:26'But is this the art?
0:38:27 > 0:38:30'Or was it the creative effort of the walk itself?
0:38:34 > 0:38:37'Or the trace in the landscape made by Long's feet?
0:38:40 > 0:38:43'All this makes us think again about what art can be.'
0:38:49 > 0:38:53A walk marks time with an accumulation of footsteps.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57To walk the lanes and roads is to trace a portrait of the country.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00I have become interested in using the idea of a walk to express
0:39:00 > 0:39:04original ideas about the land, art, and walking itself.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15'Long's art has certainly provoked controversy over the years,
0:39:15 > 0:39:19'as seen in a debate from a 1983 BBC documentary.'
0:39:20 > 0:39:22What makes you say that it's art?
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Because Richard Long says it's art,
0:39:25 > 0:39:27his arrangement of stones and his work...
0:39:27 > 0:39:29If people say something is art
0:39:29 > 0:39:31we have to proceed on the assumption that it is.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34A lot of people say things are art, but they're not very interesting.
0:39:34 > 0:39:35- Is it art? - He says it's art, and...
0:39:35 > 0:39:39- That's assertion again, though, of course.- You see, it's assertion.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41Oh, well, of course it's bound to be assertion.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43No, it isn't, you see, what I think...
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Well, can you try and define what art is, Ted?
0:39:45 > 0:39:46I'm not even going to try
0:39:46 > 0:39:50and I'm not going to be put in that position by you or anybody else...
0:39:50 > 0:39:52Not everyone likes Richard Long's work,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56but I genuinely think his art is for everyone
0:39:56 > 0:40:00because walking is something that virtually all of us do, whether it's
0:40:00 > 0:40:03across moors or down high streets,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07or even just from our front doors to our cars every morning.
0:40:07 > 0:40:08But what he tells us
0:40:08 > 0:40:14is that even this seemingly banal act can be an aesthetic act as well.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18It can be beautiful, it can be imaginative, and it can help us
0:40:18 > 0:40:22understand our place in the landscapes that surround us.
0:40:24 > 0:40:28'But I also see something ancient in Richard Long's lines.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33'It makes us think again about how we, as humans,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36'might have first negotiated the landscape.
0:40:38 > 0:40:39'How people have walked
0:40:39 > 0:40:43'and drawn lines across the British Isles for thousands of years.'
0:41:06 > 0:41:10'There is another, very different kind of landscape on which
0:41:10 > 0:41:11'we have had a major impact.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18'But more than any other, it's a landscape shaped
0:41:18 > 0:41:20'entirely by human culture.'
0:41:28 > 0:41:32From the Neolithic period onwards, humans reshaped the landscape for
0:41:32 > 0:41:37many different reasons, some of them practical, some of them spiritual.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41But in the more modern period, we began to remodel the land simply to
0:41:41 > 0:41:43make it more beautiful,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47and nowhere is this better expressed than in our gardens.
0:41:51 > 0:41:53'It seems like a strange idea.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57'Surely we can't hope to make nature more beautiful.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01'But humans have long created their own miniature
0:42:01 > 0:42:03'versions of the landscape.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08'The 18th century is, in my opinion,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11'the golden age in British gardens,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14'a time when designers forged a winning balance between
0:42:14 > 0:42:18'the natural and the artificial, the real and the ideal,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21'and their inspiration came from art.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30'This is a painting by the great 17th century French artist
0:42:30 > 0:42:31'Claude Lorrain.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38'It looks natural, but it obeys a strict formula of ideal beauty.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42'Tall trees frame the scene.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47'Ancient buildings emerge from the landscape.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53'A winding river leads the eye past a bridge and into the distance.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58'It looks like paradise.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05'So taken were the British landed class by this vision in paint
0:43:05 > 0:43:09'that many of them remodelled their estates according to
0:43:09 > 0:43:15'Claude's blueprint, and among the first to do so was Henry Hoare.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18'From the 1740s, Hoare set to work transforming his garden
0:43:18 > 0:43:22'at Stourhead in Wiltshire on a grand scale.'
0:43:42 > 0:43:45'He dammed up the Stour River to create an artificial lake.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51'He planted hundreds of trees with precision.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57'Constructed an undulating valley out of earth.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03'And built numerous classical style follies and grottos around the lake.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10'But the climax of the garden is here.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19'It is surely one of the most beautiful views in Britain,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23'and it has all the ingredients of one of Claude's pictures -
0:44:23 > 0:44:28'the framing trees, the curving lake, the ancient temple.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31'It is a fantasy made real.'
0:44:38 > 0:44:42Alexander Pope once wrote that all gardening was landscape painting.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Now, I always thought that was a rather silly comment to make,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49but this, I think, is proof that he was completely right,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52because what Henry Hoare has done here at Stourhead is
0:44:52 > 0:44:54exactly what artists had done before him.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56He has rearranged nature,
0:44:56 > 0:45:00composed nature to make it more beautiful and more pleasing.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07'Hoare wasn't alone.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10'Across the estates of Britain,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14'naturalistic landscape gardens became the height of fashion.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20'And today gardening has become a national obsession,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24'the way that so many of us attempt to make nature our own.
0:45:30 > 0:45:33'But while most of our gardens are simply there for pleasure,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36'one artist has attempted to go further.'
0:45:51 > 0:45:54'I've come to a modern garden in Dumfriesshire to meet a man
0:45:54 > 0:45:58'who has done things that would astonish even Henry Hoare.'
0:46:10 > 0:46:14'This is the Garden of Cosmic Speculation,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17'and there is no mistaking the human hand here.'
0:46:25 > 0:46:29'It's as far from a naturalistic garden as it's possible to get.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34'And yet it is based on the underlying
0:46:34 > 0:46:36'principles of nature itself.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44'The fractals, black holes
0:46:44 > 0:46:47'and wave forms that form our understanding of the universe.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54'This extraordinary garden was created by the landscape artist,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57'architect and theorist Charles Jencks.'
0:46:58 > 0:47:02'Born in America, Jencks began developing the garden
0:47:02 > 0:47:05'at his home in Scotland in 1988.'
0:47:05 > 0:47:08I think when you see the sun go down,
0:47:08 > 0:47:11and you see the earth form these pathways,
0:47:11 > 0:47:16and the light is at the top, you definitely feel as
0:47:16 > 0:47:20if you belonged here, as if this is a part of you.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24It's not just a projection, it's kind of a deep feeling,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26and I think you get that in landscape, erm...
0:47:28 > 0:47:32And you don't get it in any art that is not bigger than you.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39'More recently, Jencks has completed a new work -
0:47:39 > 0:47:41'the Crawick Multiverse,
0:47:43 > 0:47:46'a monumental series of land forms in Dumfriesshire.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52'It references so many ancient monuments -
0:47:52 > 0:47:56'stone circles, long barrows and burial mounds.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59'But this is inspired by the science of our own age.'
0:48:11 > 0:48:15So how do you see your relationship to nature?
0:48:15 > 0:48:19We're part of nature, but as religions have always said,
0:48:19 > 0:48:21we're different from nature,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24and I think both are very deep inside us.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27And so landscape art,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32and art in general, should show that very strange human relationship
0:48:32 > 0:48:36to the universe, er, that is both feeling at home
0:48:36 > 0:48:39and feeling separate from it.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49I know that everything here has multiple meanings...
0:48:49 > 0:48:53- Yes.- ..but what are you trying to achieve with this garden?
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Well, I'm trying to achieve the old idea that we're
0:48:57 > 0:49:01partly at home in the universe and we should celebrate that.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05And if you haven't enjoyed it and found it amusing and colourful
0:49:05 > 0:49:08and sensuous and delightful...
0:49:08 > 0:49:10It should do all of that,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13so I think if you're not happy in this garden,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15er, I've failed.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21'I don't think Charles Jencks has failed.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26'What he has achieved both here
0:49:26 > 0:49:29'and at the Crawick Multiverse is hugely impressive.'
0:49:35 > 0:49:40Charles Jencks' garden is a microcosm of the universe itself.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46Now, of course, it's absurdly grandiose, of course it is,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50but in a way, all gardens are worlds within worlds.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53All gardens are ways by which humans try to negotiate
0:49:53 > 0:49:58a place for themselves amid the mysteries of nature.
0:50:03 > 0:50:07'The garden is our most explicit attempt not simply to
0:50:07 > 0:50:10'reshape nature, but to possess it.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14'But while we can possess the land,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17'one natural realm will forever elude us.'
0:50:37 > 0:50:41"It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44"It is the part of creation in which Nature has done
0:50:44 > 0:50:46"more for the sake of pleasing man,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49"more for the sole and evident purpose of talking to him
0:50:49 > 0:50:52"and teaching him than in any other of her works.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55"And it is just the part in which we least attend to her.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00"There is not a moment of any day of our lives when nature is not
0:51:00 > 0:51:03"producing scene after scene, picture after picture,
0:51:03 > 0:51:05"glory after glory.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10"The noblest scenes of the earth can be seen and known but by few,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13"but the sky is for all."
0:51:24 > 0:51:29'I love these words, written by John Ruskin more than 100 years ago.
0:51:37 > 0:51:38'And he is, of course, right.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42'Too often we ignore the beauty that lies above us.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49'It is indeed the eternal masterpiece.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03'And in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, one structure has been
0:52:03 > 0:52:07'devised expressly to draw our focus up to the sky.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17'For me, it is one of Britain's most inspiring artworks.'
0:52:22 > 0:52:25So this is it.
0:52:25 > 0:52:31It's a small square room, surrounded on all sides by concrete benches.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35It's a simple place, actually quite understated, but what's
0:52:35 > 0:52:40important about it, what's beautiful about it, is up there.
0:52:55 > 0:53:00'This is a "Skyspace," by the American artist James Turrell.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05'In the middle of the ceiling,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09'he has cut an aperture that opens directly onto the sky.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17'All he asks his viewers to do is open their eyes and look up.
0:53:39 > 0:53:44'As one slowly adjusts to the scene, one becomes transfixed.'
0:54:02 > 0:54:05This has been one of the great, great experiences for me,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09and, you know, the skyspace does something really miraculous,
0:54:09 > 0:54:13it makes the sky come indoors, it really feels like the sky is
0:54:13 > 0:54:17hovering inside this room, that you could even reach up and touch it.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22And, you know, I've been sitting here for a few hours now,
0:54:22 > 0:54:26and watching this incredible drama unfold above me,
0:54:26 > 0:54:29I've seen this amazing palette of blues change,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32I've seen clouds scud across the ceiling,
0:54:32 > 0:54:37and I've seen the odd cameo of birds and jet planes.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41And, you know, it has been gripping, completely gripping throughout.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46I think one of the lessons that James Turrell teaches you is
0:54:46 > 0:54:48patience, because you can't just come in here
0:54:48 > 0:54:52and spend 30 seconds and then walk out again.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57You have to sit down, you have to look up, and you have to just wait,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00and you have to adjust to the rhythms of nature.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02And, you know, it reminds me that
0:55:02 > 0:55:04the greatest art
0:55:04 > 0:55:06does something very simple.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11It makes the familiar seem completely unfamiliar.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16It makes you see the world in an entirely new way.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28'I couldn't bring myself to leave the skyspace.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32'So I stayed on into the evening.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38'And inside, there was more magic to come.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47'As the sun sets, perfectly adjusted lights have a remarkable effect
0:55:47 > 0:55:50'on the colour of the sky at dusk.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10'The sky turns an overwhelmingly intense blue, deepening more
0:56:10 > 0:56:13'and more as the night encroaches.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22'It is like an abstract painting made by nature itself.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50'On my travels around the British Isles,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52'I visited six distinct landscapes.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56'And I've found inspiring
0:56:56 > 0:56:58'and beautiful things everywhere I've gone.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03'I've seen some artworks thrive for decades.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07'And others only last a few moments.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14'I've seen unforgettable, elemental struggles.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21'And peaceful, but thought-provoking havens.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28'Each of them taps into our ancient desire to make a mark on the land...
0:57:29 > 0:57:32'..while redefining what modern art can be.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39'And each of them finds beauty in a world we often take for granted.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48'Together they prove that art is everywhere.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54'All we need to do is go out into nature and find it.'