After its first year and inaugural exhibition ‘Picture This: Revisiting the Picturesque’ in 2002, the Meadow Gallery addressed the concepts of borders and boundaries, and notions of ownership and access in the countryside.

Part of our attraction towards the natural environment is based on ideals of boundlessness and openness though few landscapes are truly boundless. In what is seen as the “natural” environment, history and culture are rigorously inscribed on the land by means of visible and invisible borders and boundaries.

Boundaries divide, cross and re-cross the land, marking patterns of ownership, restriction, control and belonging. Ways of knowing the landscape can be at the same time scientific, magical and romantic. It is the boundaries between these attitudes and the reality of the landscape that have been explored by the artists in this exhibition. All of the works were specially commissioned for this exhibition and were created specifically for the site.