Radical Landscapes at Tate Liverpool: New exhibition explores climate crisis

In summer 2022, Tate Liverpool will present Radical Landscapes, a major exhibition showing a century of landscape art.

More than 150 works will be presented in way that reveals Britain’s never-before-told social and cultural history through the themes of trespass, land use, and the climate emergency.

“It is a new account of landscape art over the past 100 years,” Darren Pih, Curator at Tate Liverpool, explains.

“So it really tries to break with the convention of the lands being conservative and gazed upon and tries to create a more political, more nuanced and contemporary image of landscape.

“It brings together some of the masterpieces of the Tate collection - by John Constable, by Paul Nash, by Graham Sutherland -  and brings these together in way that retells an account of trespass, how we use the land, how we draw resources from the land, like minerals and fuel, and how we respond when see the environment being impacted by climate change.”

What you can expect to see at Radical Landscapes

The exhibition will include over 150 works. A particular highlight will be Ruth Ewan’s Back to the Fields 2015-22, an immersive experience that will bring the gallery to life through a living installation of plants, farming tools and the fruits of the land.

This will be accompanied by a new commission by Davinia-Ann Robinson, whose practice explores the relationship between Black, Brown and Indigenous soil conservation practices and what she terms as ‘Colonial Nature environments’.

Key works looking at Britain’s landscape histories include Cerne Abbas 2019 by Jeremy Deller, Tacita Dean’s Majesty 2006 and Oceans Apart 1989 by Ingrid Pollard.

In addition, ideas about collective activism can be seen in banners, posters and photographs, such as the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp banners by Thalia Campbell and video installations by Tina Keane.

Key works looking at performance and identity in the landscape include Claude Cahun’s Je Tends les Bras 1931 and Whop, Cawbaby 2018 by Tanoa Sasraku, while the significance of the British garden is seen in works such as Anwar Jalal Shemza’s Apple Tree 1962 and Figures in a Garden 1979-81 by Eileen Agar.

Radical Landscapes will feature works that reflect the climate and its impact on the landscape, including Gustav Metzger’s dazzling Liquid Crystal Environment 1965 (remade 2005) and Yuri Pattison’s sun[set] provisioning 2019.

The ethos of Radical Landscapes

Radical Landscapes will present art that reflects the diversity of Britain’s landscape and communities.

From rural to radical, the exhibition reconsiders landscape art as a progressive genre, with artists drawing new meanings from the land to present it as a heartland for ideas of freedom, mysticism, experimentation and rebellion.

Radical Landscapes poses questions about who has the freedom to access, inhabit and enjoy this ‘green and pleasant land’. It will draw on trespass themes and contested boundaries spurred by our cultural and emotional responses to accessing and protecting our rural landscape.

The exhibition will also consider how artists and activists have created works that highlight and question the human impact on the landscape and ecosystems, shining a light on the restorative potential of nature to provoke debate and stimulate social change.