Paused

Categories: Studio Practice, Site-specific

Media: Sea-worn local sandstone rocks (Upper Greensand), pillar drill and various drill bits.

2020

I had collected these nine 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.

Currently, there are just two of the smallest stones outstanding to be done.