Tarmac and Worms

A number of these works were made from tarmac that was recently part of the car park on the cliff top at nearby Compton beach, Isle of Wight. The tarmac was freshly slipped and had yet to reach beach level.

At around the same time, experiments were underway in the studio with specialist grade silicone rubber.

The core ingredient of silicone is silica - sand - despite its appearance to the contrary. Silicone’s ability as a sculptural material has been intriguing to explore. It can fix and hold, appear still wet, yet be soft and rubbery to touch. The process of extruding and manipulating is a series of quick reflexive steers with or against the natural flow of the material. Whilst satisfyingly spontaneous to make, curing can take weeks or even months depending on the density.

For this installation inside the cottage at Ever Garden, select pieces of the land-slipped tarmac have been given encounters with 'beach worms’. A number were formed over time and are presented here as a home-made, pseudo-geological, specimen collection.