Wood, in 80 parts

Diameter 330 cm

River Avon Driftwood Spiral is a spiral of wood laid in a clockwise direction, made up of driftwood picked up by Richard Long on the banks of the River Avon below Leigh Woods, near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Following Long’s set of instructions for arrangement, each piece of wood is placed on the floor randomly, with its flattest and most stable side facing down. The pieces are arranged lengthwise along the spiral, with each one positioned two of its own lengths apart from the previous piece. Part of Long’s multiple driftwood floor-works under the title River Avon Driftwood, the work is shaped by a careful convergence between abstract human ideas and sheer natural force: while Long has determined a formal order to the general form of this floor-work, the natural shape of each piece of driftwood affects the specific look of each spiral, giving each floor-work in this series a unique appearance despite their same material source. In this way, Long captures our human tendency to make sense of the natural world despite its unimaginable grandiosity.