The Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter has a rich history of portraying the landscape of Dartmoor, and exploring what it means to people through photography and art. As lead partner, the DPA and guests had the opportunity to view the new ‘Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape‘ exhibition the evening before it’s opening to the public on Saturday the 19th of October. We were joined by a number of our trustees, plus representatives from our friends: Moorland Guides, Dartmoor Walking Tours, Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Museum of Dartmoor Life.
Spread across two large rooms, the exhibition features a fascinating mix of photography, sculpture, print, mixed media and found objects. After meeting artist Jo Bradford at the ‘Dartmoor Frame of Mind’ event, which showcased photography from young people she had been working with, it was wonderful to see her own captures of Dartmoor. ‘The Summoning Stones,’ by Alex Hartley, commissioned for the exhibition by the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, dominates the first room. This installation has been created from recycled solar photo-voltaic panels, hand-dyed Giclée prints, paint and resin on a powder-coated steel framework. There is something very powerful about images of ancient granite standing stones, overlaid on modern solar panels, which have reached the end of their working life.
Also on display is the piece, ‘Breathing in the Beech Wood. Homeland, Dartmoor, Twenty-Four Days of Sunlight’ by Garry Fabian Miller. This is a striking piece which uses a dye destruction printing technique
which harks back to the earliest days of photography. In his book, TREE: Exploring the Arboreal World David Trigg discusses this time consuming process in more detail:
“Eighty-one beech leaves are carefully arranged like objects of scientific study in this photographic print, revealing their delicate structures and vibrant green hues. A pioneer of contemporary camera-less photography since the early 1980s, Garry Fabian Miller (b 1957) created this leafy grid entirely in his darkroom without the use of cameras or film. The British artist spent twenty-four days gathering leaves from Dartmoor in southwest England and inserted each one into a photographic enlarger where negatives or transparencies would normally be placed.
Using a method recalling the earliest days of photography, he shone light through the leaves, projecting and recording the individual leaf images directly onto photosensitive paper. Fabian Miller’s photographic experiments exploring the subjects of time, light and colour are informed by his daily walks in Dartmoor’s windswept moorland and ancient forests. This piece represents his return to working with nature after a period spent exploring abstract imagery. The beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of Britain’s largest trees and, alongside oak, is a dominant species in Dartmoor, with some trees known to have lived for more than three hundred years. In spring, its leaves gradually change from a bright, light green to a deep emerald as chlorophyll levels increase – a phenomenon reflected here by the gradation of colour across the grid’s horizontal rows, just as photography similarly relies on the transformative power of light.”
This exhibition feels like an exciting celebration of the power which Dartmoor has to inspire, and many visitors we spoke to were already planning to visit again. The DPA is delighted to have been able to support the museum in showcasing this compelling work, created by some of the most talented living artists and photographers producing art at this time. Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape is now open to the public, and will remain so until the 23rd of February 2025.
Tickets can be booked online HERE.