Following a group exhibition at LYC Gallery in Cumbria, with Andy Goldsworthy and Michael Jepson; Rankle's work in landscape art became starkly politicised.
In the summer of 1982 on his first trip to Finland he became aware of the effects of acid rain on the lakes and forests of Scandinavia, and the patently inadequate response of the establishment.
A series of landmark installation/performance pieces followed intended to draw attention to environmental issues (often as fund raising events for Arts for the Earth, the art 'wing' of Friends of the Earth).
These included a 30 metre long scroll painting produced on the top of Beachy Head in Sussex with his collaborator Jan Stephens, and several notable pieces with the left-field artists group Order out of Chaos; one of which 'Discarded Sculptures' (1986) was the first project to bring his work to the attention of a wider public.
Following a group exhibition at LYC Gallery in Cumbria, with Andy Goldsworthy and Michael Jepson; Rankle's work in landscape art became starkly politicised. In the summer of 1982 on his first trip to Finland he became aware of the effects of acid rain on the lakes and forests of Scandinavia, and the patently inadequate response of the establishment. A series of landmark installation/performance pieces followed intended to draw attention to environmental issues (often as fund raising events for Arts for the Earth, the art 'wing' of Friends of the Earth). These included a 30 metre long scroll painting produced on the top of Beachy Head in Sussex with his collaborator Jan Stephens, and several notable pieces with the left-field artists group Order out of Chaos; one of which 'Discarded Sculptures' (1986) was the first project to bring his work to the attention of a wider public.
Alan Rankle