Jackdaw Line by Richard Long

About

Celebrated artist Richard Long’s newly installed artwork Jackdaw Line is set in Hestercombe’s Georgian Landscape Garden. The piece has been commissioned as part of Bampfylde 300, a year of exhibitions and events celebrating the life and work of Hestercombe’s former owner and landscape designer, Coplestone Warre Bampfylde.

Made using local Morte Slate, Jackdaw Line snakes through the landscape below the Box Pond at Hestercombe, and uses stone sourced from a quarry in the same valley.

Richard Long describes his work in general as a ‘love and celebration of the natural world’; and of this new sculpture he says ‘I’m an opportunist – I was invited to make a work, not far from my home, in these beautiful gardens with a fantastic supply of stones, and the help of gardeners who turned their skilled hands to manning wheelbarrows.’

The meandering sculpture is a reminder for the artist of River of Stones, a work made at the eighteenth century Madhavendra Palace in Jaipur in 2018.

Originally programmed by Hestercombe Gallery for earlier this year the commission had to be rescheduled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, Long has continued to make work from his home in Bristol, including Spring Line (2020) and Daydreaming Line (2020) both made by the act of walking near his home. This new stone work is Long’s first since the easing of the lockdown.

Tickets

Richard Long’s Jackdaw Line can be seen at Hestercombe from Wednesday to Sunday each week, 10am – 4pm. All visits must be pre-booked online by 5pm on the day before you wish to visit.