Walking backwards : Art between places in twenty-first-century Britain

This chapter seeks to trouble the binary of process-driven, conceptual walking art and the kind of art which privileges the aesthetic object. The argument develops through close readings, interpretation and analysis of a range of walking practices of contemporary British artists. For some of these artists, walking itself is the art, for others, walking is a crucial component, but for all, an embodied and close relation to place is key. The exploration of the diversity of practices and a detailed consideration of the differences between the selected practices on the one hand opens up a sensitivity to the socio-economic and cultural experience of difference in contemporary Britain that requires attention to these walking practices at several levels simultaneously. On the other, it explores how the aesthetics of walking might be one way to begin to respond to some major cultural and environmental issues, including ecocriticism, sustainability and human impact on “nature”.