Frances McGonigle

Quarry Studies

 

“….the ragged edge,

the eroding lip, the dry drop defining

the limits of blast and cutter’s craft”

                from “Quarries” – John Lane

These works are from a series of 21 miniature studies. I wanted to represent a colossal edifice of some sort in tiny scale. In part these small studies are a reaction to being surrounded by so much “stuff” in the art sense. Scaling down like this, whilst looking at something massive, feels like a good way to be brief, and I like the idea of smaller works depicting something huge.  

I have been fascinated by quarries for some time, and studies based on these became the “edifice” subject matter. Carrara quarry is particularly interesting to me due to its iconic stature as supplier of marble for construction of the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column, but also as a place that’s a hotbed of political revolt, spearheaded by its quarry workers and stone-carvers. What has been mined from Carrara seems to represent power and structure, in contrast to the dissent of its craftsmen.

I also love abandoned quarries that have surrendered to nature. There’s quarry local to me called Commons North. It’s now a nature reserve, and nature seems to recover well in these places. Heytor Ponds and Bole Hill are wonderful old quarry nature reserves in England, and the forms of cut stone against wilderness is very beautiful and haunting