Paused
Media: Sea-worn local sandstone rocks (Upper Greensand), pillar drill and various drill bits.
2020
I had collected these seven strangely uniform sea-worn sandstone rocks a couple of years back from nearby Compton beach. They looked like typographic dashes and to further that, I had in mind drilling an ellipsis (three full stops) into the surface to indicate the pause I had created by extracting them from their natural geological habitat and interrupting the process of wearing further away.
When the pandemic came, I thought about them again and they took on more gravity as a work to undertake at a time when the whole world was put on hold. Each small circular incision made feels both like a collaboration with the stone and a penance. The use of a pillar drill and a variety of both suitable and unsuitable drill bits, a slow procedure and a balance of powered device-controlled assistance and hand-eye instinctive judgement.
Given the nature of the circumstances under which they were created, I intended to deliver the stones back to the sea, to 'unpause' them, when the worst of the virus has passed (aiming for spring 2022). Until then they were displayed in a purpose built shrine inside the cottage at Ever Garden for the first open season for 2021.
Charity auction:
In Sept 21, I thought it would be appropriate for one of the stones to be offered for auction to the highest bidder, as a charity fundraiser for Earl Mountbatten Hospice. The number of bidders totalled six, so I decided to offer six out of the seven stones to the bidders, with one remaining to return to the sea. A total of £352.15 was raised.
The stones will be featured in the forthcoming 'First Ever Catalogue'.
