Ian Hamilton Finlay
Six Milestones

‘A milestone is poetical although it only tells the way’. This text has been carved in classical capital letters in one of the six ‘milestones’ that were placed along the banks of the Floriadeplas (lake) during the 1992 Floriade. The carved texts in the poetic ‘Six Milestones’ by poet and visual artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay, portray the beauty of nature and poetry as well as their interconnectedness. Since 1964 Finlay has made objects that can best be described as ‘poetic objects’. In his work he uses a wide variety of materials including aluminum, stone, ceramics, wood, fiber glass, neon and glass. Time and again he directly links notions of beauty to other issues such as virtue, violence and destruction. For example, in the sculpture garden of the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller (national museum), he placed stone foundations against trees. On these foundations he carved the names of notable figures that are often connected to concepts of beauty and morality such as Rousseau, Corot en Robespierre.

‘Six Milestones’ was created as part of the exhibition ‘Allocaties. Kunst voor een natuurlijke en kunstmatige omgeving’ (‘Allocations. Art for natural and artificial environments’). The exhibition counted 23 works of which a number were acquired by the Zoetermeer council after the Floriade. Among these was ‘Six Milestones’. Unfortunately one of the six stones has disappeared. (Véronique Hoedemakers)