I Went to the Woods looks at how artists have experienced and portrayed their surroundings in the course of walks, journeys and aimless wanderings. Featuring works by Irish and international artists, the exhibition explores the artist as a drifter, nomad, and traveller, who captures the external environment through the careful observation of their surroundings and the collection of materials, objects and images.

In this way, the artists in I Went to the Woods epitomise a sense of rugged individualism and romantic idealism, a worldview expressed in Henry David Thoreau’s statement that gives its title to the exhibition: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

An extensive programme of curated events, performances, lectures, and educational activities takes place at the Glucksman during the exhibition run.

The exhibition has been supported by The Arts Council of Ireland, Danish Arts Foundation, Embassy of Denmark, Ireland, the Flemish Agency for Art and Heritage and private philanthropy through Cork University Foundation.

Artists: Anna Bak, Brendan Earley, Fiona Kelly, Juha Pekka Matias Laakkonen, Richard Long, Helen Mirra, Ria Pacquée, herman de vries, Walker & Walker.

23 July – 6 November 2016, Lewis Glucksman Gallery