Dartmoor exists in the cultural imagination as a place of freedom and wilderness. Attracted by a particular, indescribable presence in its landscape, artists of all disciplines have continued to be drawn back over centuries.

Now, a major new exhibition at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) sets out to tell those stories while challenging visitors to reframe their own connections to our much-loved national park. 

Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape is the work of 18 artists and photographers, spanning 1969 to 2024, showcasing human connection to this unique landscape through photography, film and land art. Its name harks back to the Latin backgrounds of the word ‘radical’ – which actually means roots. As Exeter University Associate Professor Katharine Earnshaw points out: “we often use radical now as something that means more progressive or even transgressive.”

RAMM has specially commissioned a number of local artists, including Ashish Ghadiali whose film ‘Cinematics of Gaia and Magic’ is inspired by a conversation with Gaia theorist James Lovelock in the final year of his life. RAMM invited Ghadiali to create a new moving image work inspired by its collections of Dartmoor materials on display in the museum and in its stores.

Exploring conceptual approaches to art, Nancy Holt, Marie Yates and Turner Prize Winner Richard Long have used 1960s photography as both a means of documentation and as a trace of their journey through the Dartmoor landscape. Long intends to ‘make a new way of walking: walking as art.’

Universal themes are found in Robert Darch’s images of the Ten Tors Challenge, which describe a rite of passage for young people, while artist Jo Bradford shares her methods of operating sustainably from her off-grid home studio, while promoting photography as a tool for mental health.

“Dartmoor is also a contested landscape and a microcosm of urgent issues facing Britain today”, says curator Lara Goodband.

Scientists agree that the UK is now the most nature depleted area of Europe which has led to debates about how land is managed and who has access.

Some of the documentary photography showcases this well, telling stories about changing customs from past to present. Chris Chapman shares his photographic walking journey over Dartmoor in the 1970s, while more recently, photographer Fern Leigh Albert, who has lived on Dartmoor since 2013, documents protests during the ongoing campaign to retain wild camping rights.

David Spero’s series ‘Settlements’ explores this even further, by documenting the Steward Community Woodland. His series charts its evolution up to 2019, when permanent planning permission was refused, and the seven resident households were forced to dismantle all non-agricultural buildings and leave the woods.

Exhibition Curator Lara concludes: “The 55 years the exhibition spans invites us to consider our relationship with the specific landscape of Dartmoor, the changes during that time and what we would like to see and be able to experience in the future.”

Dartmoor: A Radical Landscape is showing at the RAMM from 19th October 2024 to 23rd February 2025. An extensive events programme of talks and workshops will run alongside the exhibition. Find out more at www.rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/dartmoor-a-radical-landscape