Hamish Fulton (born 1946) is an English walking artist. Since 1972 he has only made works based on the experience of walks. He translates his walks into a variety of media, including photography, illustrations, and wall texts. His work is contained in major museums collections, such as the

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

and MoMA. Since 1994 he has been creating group walks for the public. Fulton argues that 'walking is an artform in its own right' and argues for wider acknowledgement of walking art.

Biography

He first attended the art foundation course at Hammersmith College of Art. With help from a tutor ( David Hall) he was accepted straight into the advanced course at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

, London, 1966–68, and the following year studied at the Royal College of Art, London. He started creating walks while at Saint Martin's, including a group walk in 1967 from the front of the school out into the countryside. Seven paces

Fulton follows a leave no trace ethic, and does not collect materials on his walks for display in galleries. Instead, his work combines text-based descriptions with a photograph, illustration, or, more recently, vinyl wall texts, to communicate his walks to viewers in a gallery. Fulton has stated that walking is an experience not an art medium, and that what he builds is an experience, not a sculpture. More recently, Fulton has referred to his walks as 'invisible objects' and has discussed his group walks as artworks that are created and observed by the participants. Fulton has emphasised the political aspects of his work, particularly in concern to the situation in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

and the degradation of the environment. In 1994, Fulton experimented with the creation of group walks while working side-by-side with Marina Abramović at CCA Kitakyushu. He has created a variety of group walks since, including ''Slowalk (in Support of Ai Weiwei)'' (2011) in the Turbine Hall at the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

to bring attention to the restrictions on artist Ai Weiwei's freedom of travel and artistic production. In 2002 he worked with artist Christine Quoiraud on a series of group walks in France.^:59 Since working with Quoiraud, Fulton has adopted her style of equi-spaced walking during his group walks. In 2010, Deveron Projects commissioned Fulton to create ''21 Days in the Cairngorms'', which included two group walks in Huntly, Scotland.^:55 ^:3 This project continued Fulton's engagement with the

Cairngorms The Cairngorms ( gd, Am Monadh Ruadh) are a mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland closely associated with the mountain Cairn Gorm. The Cairngorms became part of Scotland's second national park (the Cairngorms National Park) on 1 S ...

, where he previously created a number of walking works, and resulted in the book ''Mountain Time, Human Time'' (2010). Zeiske, the director of Deveron Projects, cites Fulton as the inspiration for the establishment of The Walking Institute, which has continued to develop artistic projects based in walking.^:3

Solo exhibitions

* ''Hamish Fulton - A Decision to Choose Only Walking'' (2016) Galerie Tschudi - Zuoz, Zuoz, Switzerland * ''Hamish Fulton: Wells of Dee'' (2015) Galleri Riis, Stockholm, Sweden * ''Walking Transformation'' (2014) Villa Merkel, Esslingen Am Neckar, Germany

Publications

*Hamish Fulton (2010) ''Mountain Time, Human Time''. Charta: Milano. *Fulton, H. (2012) ''Walking in Relation to Everything''. Ikon Gallery: Birmingham. *Hamish Fulton (2000) ''Magpie: Two River Walks''. Lethbridge: Southern Alberta Art Gallery. *Hamish Fulton. (2000b) ''Wild Life: a Walk in the Cairngorms''. Edinburgh: Pocketbooks. *Camp Fire. Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. 1985.

References

External links

Artist Website

Maureen Paley Website

Galerie van der Mieden Website

Examples of the 'fulton' Visual poetry form
* Footage from the artist's participatory performance piece at Tate Modern. 1 May 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fulton, Hamish Photographers from London Walking artists 1946 births Living people Alumni of the Royal College of Art British conceptual artists Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art English contemporary artists