River Avon mud drawing 1983

Richard Long made this River Avon mud drawing with, well, mud, presumably from the banks of the River Avon. It’s all about the process, right? The sludgy, earthy materiality of it all. There’s this spiral of finger-like gestures, a circular dance of marks. It's not about perfection; it's about action. Look closely, you can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the surface, smearing and swirling the mud. The color is just pure earth, that kind of brown that holds all the secrets of the ground. It reminds me of cave paintings, or maybe even some kind of ritualistic marking. Like Robert Smithson's earthworks, Long is interested in the interface between nature and culture, where art is a kind of performed intervention. It’s not about pretty pictures but a direct, physical engagement with the world. And in the end, isn’t that what art is all about?