The Intruder
In 2015, the artist shrank the actual size of England.
Oscar retrieved the small stone found at the very top of Scafell Pike, the country’s highest point. The Intruder presents the mount’s peak, shifting a landmark into a portable place.
Created in pre-Brexit Britain, the work coincided with rising nationalist sentiment. The Intruder brought these underlying anxieties to light, this quiet act unexpectedly set off an intense wave of media controversy and public debate.
Moment when the artist finds and gathers the peak of the highest mountain in England, modifying the geographic reality of the entire country with this simple gesture.
Displayed on a pedestal, The Intruder reflects on how humans impose cultural categories on the planet: labels like the tallest, largest, or deepest are arbitrary fixations detached from the complex reality of Earth.
The Intruder
The top inch of the United Kingdom. 2015
