SCULPTURE DESIGN

The Circle Project began on New Years Day 2000 at an Iron Age hill fort in rural Shropshire, - a fresh millenium, a fresh project. I had been working with a spontaneous circle motif since about 1995, mostly in wood but later with in situ stone, particularly at Portland Quarry in Dorset , here, most blocks were too heavy to be removed and so remained where they came to be. On this New Years Day the circles were extended to carving on natural stone outcrops on public land,however,the idea was not for the sculptures to be easily accessible but rather stumbled across in years or decades to come, chance discoverys rather than easy finds.The location then was essential and  the most remote chiselling spots in the landscapes I was in were sought out. The days working at each location became a respite - no mind, only hands ,stone, chisel and mallet.

To date locations of finished works include remote parts of the Izu Peninsular, Japan: Kattegat,Denmark: the Tuscan Hills and Lago Di Garda, Italy, the Western Isles of Scotland: Dao Cat Ba,Vietnam , rural Cheonan,South Korea, Wadi-Rum,Jordan: Gebel Akhdar ,Oman The Surrey Hills,England: Ras Tanura , Saudi Arabia:Ghadames Bluffs,Libya: Siwa,Egypt.

Sculptures generally take one day to complete dependent on the hardness of the rock- the idea of the project is to reach a  point where there is only rhythm and intuition relating  to the density, fissures and natural contours of the rock, a place where still spontaneity creates an unlikely union.

Initially rudimentary diagrams were kept of trails leading back to the location of the work, this later progressed to abandoning the work entirely, leaving them uncharted to time and kismets of unknowable variation.

The project is currently on hold- for details see here