Landscaping Islands: Alex Hartley’s “Nowhereisland” and Floating Histories in Contemporary British Art

• Main Author: Gill Perry
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Yale University 2018-12-01
• Series: British Art Studies
• Subjects: Alex Hartley; Robert Morris; Katrina Palmer; Lucy Orta; Rachel Whiteread; contemporary art; fine art; art history; british art; landscape
• Online Access: https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-10/landscaping-islands

Drawing on examples of installation, film, photography, and performance, this essay explores the significance of the island theme in contemporary British art. Focusing on Alex Hartley’s Nowhereisland, a floating construction that travelled from the Arctic to the south coast of England during the 2012 Olympics, it considers several recent island projects and how these contribute not only to aesthetic and visual culture, but also to an understanding of wider political and cultural issues. Nowhereisland challenged many themes and tropes, not only of nationhood, mobility, and “islandness”, but also of the relationship of place to landscape. As a mobile, participatory, and transitory sculpted landscape, Hartley’s floating island undermines any sense of landscape being apparently “natural” or fixed. The essay explores both the pre-history of Hartley’s floating project and the significance of the creative potential and contemporary relevance of the broader island theme in contemporary multimedia and sculptural practice in Britain, drawing upon works by Katrina Palmer, Lucy Orta, and Rachel Whiteread.