“Hier kommt der Steinman!” shouted Artemidis to the other Gods, surprising herself that she spoke in German. Enter Hermes, transformed into a stack of stones, no longer able to move between worlds, yet still teaming with life. What is a boundary? he asked, do I transcend it if I exist in more than one state?
Descend into deeply etched spheroids, cylinders and irregular pieces. Pitted spheroids, ovals. Stretched bubble sections. Both straight and curved, pointed. Worm track grooves and navels. Highly complicated flow lines. On relatively smooth surfaces. Irregular forms characteristic. A mild etching – a partial re-fusing. Flow backward and solidify. More or less flattening. Into a shape on the ground.
Plato walks along the stepping stone path that winds intensely through the Republic before straightening out and discontinuing in front of a large rock. In his struggle to maintain a consistent view along his journey, Plato asks: What knowledge is possessed by the craftsman? Will this rock become a pillar of virtue?
An enveloping igneous epidermis. A seemingly dormant appearance. Hiding peculiar, lenticular structures. The pre-life chemical authors. Having prevailed over partially molten surfaces. Mastered the Hadean Earth’s hazardous environment. Lightening strikes clay sediments. Now towering in the condition of fragments. Bounded polygons common to all latitudes. Enduring and mute to their origins.
Does he carry it up or does he push it? A is for answer: as everything this is subjective to translation and interpretation. Either way it rolls down again and again, creating towers of dust binding with the sweat of one man exemplifying the human condition. This is our rock to cart.
Containing a powerful magnetism. Governing arcane sedimentary cycles. Stratigraphic sequences. Each repeated. Enveloping organisms of varying morphological complexity. Flesh still clinging. Delivered by interplanetary collision. Highly sensitive to the Earth-Moon system. A remarkable resistance to extinction. The stones are breathing. *
*An experimental, collaborative text written by Evy Jokhova (regular) and Julie Hill (italics) using a method similar to exquisite corpse, different voices are stacked on top of one another, echoing the structure of cairns, totems or rock sediments. This provides an imaginary entry point to the exhibition where Jokhova explores the different facets of our relationship with stone – from the myths and theories of Classical Antiquity to the structures of the contemporary built environment.
This exhibition is kindly supported by Arts Council England.
+ more info here
+ Anya Smirnova, 'Towering in the conditions of fragments', thisistomorrow, February 2017
