A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) 1982 - 1984

Curator: Keith Arnatt's photograph, A.O.N.B. (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), stops me in my tracks, literally. Editor: It feels…abandoned. This brutalist structure, smack in the middle of what I assume is supposed to be stunning nature, feels incredibly bleak. Curator: Exactly! Arnatt's playing with irony, subverting expectations. The "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" becomes an absurd backdrop for this mundane, almost confrontational object. Editor: It’s an interesting commentary on how we define and commodify nature, right? Slapping a label on something doesn't automatically make it pristine or untouched, especially when there's this blatant intrusion. Curator: Right! It's as if Arnatt is pointing out the absurdity of trying to control or sanitize our experience of the natural world. Editor: It leaves me thinking about the narratives we construct around landscapes and who gets to decide what's beautiful, what's valuable, and what's simply…in the way. Curator: Beautifully put. Arnatt always makes me question my own assumptions.