Art hikes

To Plymouth to see Dean Knight's Modern Sculpture at Project Space 11. I also popped in on Ambulation at Plymouth Arts Centre and Material Actions at Plymouth College of Art's brand new gallery space (formerly the Viewpoint Gallery). Back at the other end of Devon, I was hoping to top it all off with the opening of the Exeter Contemporary Open 2010 but I'd worn out both my feet and my eyes.

Highlight of the day was Modern Sculpture, a homage to minimalism ensconsed in a lock-up unit in the middle of a bustling market. In Material Actions, a survey of contemporary textile art, I particularly enjoyed Eleanor Morgan singing to a spider. However it's Ambulation - an exhibition accompanying a series of events around walking as artistic practice - that's given me most to think about.

Walking is source material I've employed myself on a number of occasions, but never fully resolved. Last Saturday, I joined Katie Etheridge for her performance walk called 'Life in Silhouette' at the National Trust's A la Ronde property in Exmouth. Mirroring the multifaceted house and its eccentric collections, it was a fascinating accumulation of personal and official histories.

Today at Ambulation, I watched an excellent film by Siobhan Mckeown of Phil Smith's performance walk 'Beef, Beer and Royal Steps' which also combined fascinating titbits of history and science with personal anecdotes - this time relating to Plymouth's Royal William Yard.

There's always the danger of the performer becoming little more than an eccentric tour guide in this kind of context, so both Phil Smith and Katie Etheridge position themselves as unreliable narrators, weaving many red herrings and loose ends into their stories.

The practice of psychogeography (developed and redefined as mythogeography by Phil Smith and others) seems to tick all the boxes when it comes to walking as contemporary practice. Its sociable, humorous and elaborate style is in direct contrast to the spare and serious documentation of private experience offered by the likes of Richard Long and Hamish Fulton.

There's room for both in the big wide world of art, of course...