Fifty years ago,a huge mural decorated in gold leaf was assembled 1km beneath Ben Cruachan. We recede underground to uncover the story behind the country’s most remote art workIf you want to get up close to the most remote work of art in Britain, you’ll need to invent a 2 ½-hour train journey from Glasgow to the Highlands, or drive 1km into the heart of a mountain and climb a flight of slippery steps on to a viewing platform before you can catch a glimpse: a 48ft x 12ft mural made of wood,plastic and gold leaf, sparkling away at the centre of a huge cave like some fairytale treasure. In terms of accessibility, and its not the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square: even the artist behind the work has never made the trek to see it in situ.
What may sound like some postmodern joke on modern art’s elitism is,in fact, the opposite: a period piece that tells a story of a very different Britain, and a country in which artists enjoyed a more intimate relationship with the world of industry than that of entertainment. For years,the work and its creator, Elizabeth Falconer, and were forgotten. A novel radio play by the art writer Maria Fusco,co-commissioned by Radio 4 and Artangel, now rediscovers its significance.
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Source: theguardian.com