‘The artist was born in Bristol in 1945. The first works which showed his personality go back to 1967. Long can be classified as an artist of ‘Land Art’, the first exponents of which were American. He can be distinguished from them by his sensitivity towards nature, which is typically English. He is part of a tradition which has deep roots in literature and painting. Long travelled extensively in his native country as a boy, rediscovering lost paths, which had once been the routes of shepherds and pilgrims. The artist was inspired by the lands of the North and looked for the same thing in the horizons of Canada, Africa and Australia. The most ancient inhabitants of Europe, from Malta to Valcamonica in Italy, and Scotland, felt the need to show their love for nature by choosing a place which was easy to reach, midway between earth and sky, a natural sanctuary. The traditional way to bear witness to their gratitude to nature was to place heavy stones in an order which reflected the natural laws. From this reason came the stone circles which can still be seen today in Britain. Long felt the need to do something similar, in the brief summer of Iceland, between glaciers and volcanoes, or on the high plains of Arizona, where the sky is purer. He gathered stones creating simple shapes, which he then photographed or recreated in artificial environments. The spiral is a shape loved by Long: because life has an origin, a development within time, a continuity in the repetition of situations.’