Original artwork description:

I like the idea of working with slate because of the age and nature of the material. Millions of years ago, movement of the Earth's crust, retreating seas and glaciation pushed mineral deposits collected on ancient sea beds to the Earth's surface where they were eventually quarried by man to provide shelter from the winds and rain.

The slate I use has served this purpose and is eroded and marked by exposure to the elements as well as by man-made pollutants in the atmosphere. I am interested in the journey from the seabed to the quarry, the quarry to the rooftop and the rooftop to the artwork.

In ‘Layer upon layer 1’, I have selected several pieces of slate, all washed clean from the grime collected over the years to reveal the natural texture and colouring and then carefully arranged together. The screws fill the original holes from where it was attached to the roof and the circle, a universal shape at the heart of our relationship to the world, has been scratched into the surface with a sharp point. The trace of a painted handprint echoes those ‘marks’ left deep within subterranean caves by our Palaeolithic ancestors - a hand that could have contained the genetic blueprint for any one of us.

The work is varnished to bring out the texture and then finished with a thin black wood edging, ready to hang. 70x75x2cm

Tags: