the Rain Shadows by lying down in the street in the middle of, say, New York (19). It’s torturous, but I have to do it.
PE: Did you submit photographs of the works you did at Morecambe Bay to your teachers?
AG: Yes. They couldn’t argue against the amount of work that I was doing. They were concerned that I wasn’t going in regularly, but it was a time when art schools were very open and liberal. There were good tutors – Barry Midgley, Harry Ball, Arthur Watson. Also, the artist David Nash was important. He’s about ten years older than me, and he came as a visiting lecturer. He was very supportive of what I was doing and told the lecturers not to be worried about me not attending. Richard Long came and gave a talk – I hadn’t heard of him before then.
PE: What did your parents think of what you were doing?
AG: I think there was concern that I wasn’t going to be able to make a living. But I suppose not being considered particularly bright gives you a certain leeway in terms of expectations, so there was less pressure put upon me. Our mum just wanted us to be happy. That’s all she wanted. My parents didn’t support me financially.
PE: You left the art college in June 1978. Were you still doing farm work at this time?
AG: Well, when I left art college my intention was to move back to the farm and carry on farm work and continue doing my art. But just before I left art
19 On 53rd Street and 7th Avenue. New York. 12 March 2010 , video stills from Three New York Rain Shadows 2010, unique HD video triptych with sound.
Following pages: 20 Haz el stick throws. Banks, Cumbria. 10 July 1980 , 1980, suite of nine blackand-white photographs.
school, the farmer died, leaving his wife to run the farm. For a brief period, I helped run the farm, and I remember going to buy a flock of sheep. I was about twenty. That’s how my life was going to go. And then the farmer’s wife died and that was the end of it. The farm was sold and I was told to leave. It was just after graduation. It was brutal. A college friend, Phil Owen, and I rented a cottage in High Bentham in North Yorkshire. I signed on for unemployment benefits for a few years. David Nash occasionally asked me to look after his studio-chapel in Wales when he went off on trips, and he helped me get my first exhibition at the LYC Museum & Art Gallery in Cumbria in the north of England. That was 1980.
Andrew Causey, the professor of Art History at Manchester, acquired some of my works for the Arts Council collection. David Nash probably told him about me. After leaving art school I got a North West Arts Award for £300. That was a huge amount for me, and it allowed me to print up and frame some photographs. These were done by Charlie Meecham, who still prints my photographs for me, including all those in the RSA [Royal Scottish Academy] exhibition.
PE: Tell us about the LYC show.
AG: It was run by Li Yuan-chia. He was an amazing Chinese artist who ran a gallery near Brampton in the Lake District. I hitch-hiked there with Judith before we married and was by chance picked up by the artist Winifred Nicholson and her daughter Kate. Winifred was instrumental in Li’s move to the UK. Li built the gallery himself and would do several exhibitions every month. Judith and I stayed in another caravan there.
‘One thing leads to another’
42 Sketchbook diary 4. 17 December 1981 –26 March 1982.
Opposite: 43 Feathers plucked from dead heron. Cut with sharp stone. Stripped down one side. About three-and-a-half feet overall length. Made over three calm days. Cold mornings. Frost. Smell from heron becoming more pungent as each day warmed up. Swindale Beck Wood, Cumbria. 24–26 February 1982 , 1982 (detail).
tried covering it with barbed wire. And then all of a sudden all these people emerged to take part in a big sports event. So I went back the next day to make the work. There are times where I just have to delay or wait for things to happen. But it’s really to do with intuition, instinct and chance.
PE: Was coming to Penpont a key factor in making those ephemeral works? Did you have a different approach to things because you were able to step straight out into the country?
AG: I’ve always been able to step out and make work – whether that be the rough ground below the big dipper at Morecambe next to the flat I was staying in, waste ground in a city or the hills, fields and woods wherever I might be. But yes, Penpont is important because that’s where I live.
PE: But normally there are no tools? Normally you’re sticking things together just by licking them or using water or thorns or using what is to hand?
AG: If I know what I’m going to make, I might take an appropriate tool such as a knife, bucket, ladder or something. I’m not a purist about that, but most of the time I don’t know what I am going to make, let alone the tools I might need. I like finding the means to work a material in the place I make the work. The way something is made is important. I started using thorns as nails and then the thorns became a big component in my work. As I said, one thing leads to another.
Below: 71 Re
Page 102 (top): 73 Proposal drawing for ferns, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 2024, pencil on photocopied image. Bottom: 74 Proposal drawing for dock stalks, Royal Scottish Academy Edinburgh, 2024, pencil on photocopied image.
Page 103 (top): 75 Proposal drawing for Gravestones Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh , 2024, pencil on photocopied image. Bottom: 76 Proposal drawing for rushes, Royal Scottish Academy , Edinburgh, 2024, pencil on photocopied image.
