Nature's Quarry
This project seeks to challenge industrialised material culture - the extractive practices that deplete the earth’s finite resources and rely on vast networks of externalised labour. By taking a longer-term view of time, and borrowing from indigenous cultures of reciprocity, a more sustainable material culture can be achieved.
These ideas manifested into a multi-sensory procession that places non-extractive interventions along St Bees Head, the most Westerly edge of Cumbria. These interventions are constructed from local materials, most notably Triassic St Bees Sandstone, which falls from the cliffs of Fleswick Bay – Nature’s Quarry. By inviting visitors to engage with the constructed interventions on a sensory level, I sought to expand our relationship with these materials and way of living. They are very much inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy – I walked not only St Bees Head but also the Hanging Stones Walk in the North York Moors for inspiration.
Furthermore, the reliance on the experience and feeling increases the accessibility of a predominantly visual experience along St Bees Head. Coupled with upgrades to the trail the route is now far more inclusive and will help to widen the narrow demographic that accesses this place of such vivid natural beauty. Continuing to address the impacts of industrialised extraction, of which West Cumbria bears many scars, local quarries have been reclaimed by nature and repurposed as sensory destinations where there quarried banks can be used as amphitheatres.
On the larger scale, I hope that this project can help people to re-engage with the natural world and through this process question the relationship we have with it. This project began as an exploration into the history of Technology within Cumbria and speculating upon its future. It finished as a complete volte-face, looking at our deep time past.
