The Memory Stones
The Memory Stones, by artist Hannah Sofaer MA (RCA), create an interdisciplinary platform with vistas across the isle of Portland’s landscape and sea. Once part of another landscape these large stones weighing 250 tons hold the memory of time from previous environments in which they were formed.
Each stone, aligned to the passage of the sun casts shadows that create a changing space throughout the year; marking the Spring and Autumn Equinox and Summer and Winter Solstice. The outer circle measures 20 metres diameter with the stones set out on an inner circle of 16.8 metres diameter, representing a variation of 0.16 – the same principle of variation in the Earth’s orbit around the sun. This gives rise to interglacial periods and ice ages known as the “Milankovitch cycles”.
Key messages from each stone will create a platform for a living land archive of skills and knowledge exchange, with live audio-visual recordings of the artists process and site specific work, quarrying heritage, stone masonry skills, and leading edge research by geologists and ecologists; applying a new model for regeneration in one of the most intensively quarried landscapes of the British Isles.
Wren's Stone
Greenpeace collaboration: The Ocean Stone
Installation of the Memory Stones
Interdisciplinary platform connecting the island
The Ocean Stone
Welcome to the Ocean Stone
This is the first of 12 Memory Stones by artist Hannah Sofaer to be unveiled
This work creates a legacy for the collaboration between Greenpeace and the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust (PSQT) to protect the ocean.
Working together to seek proper protection for the UK’s marine sanctuaries, Greenpeace built an underwater barrier of boulders to protect the seafloor from destructive industrial fishing. Artists from PSQT carved a large ammonite sculpture – a creature that once lived world wide with a message of their extinction as a warning of the impacts that humans are having on our ocean habitats and environment – and evocative of the ocean’s role in sustaining life for millions of years and of our responsibility to preserve it for future generations. They donated it to Greenpeace’s action. Now they have inscribed the Ocean Stone that looks out to the ammonite as part of the boulder drop at South West Deeps as a marker of our collaboration.
Artist Hannah Sofaer said:
“Here in Tout Quarry we have a long history of regenerating the land and believe art can bring people from different backgrounds and disciplines together to effect positive change. That’s exactly what we did with Greenpeace last year. The Ocean Stone stands as a record of this and also an invitation for visitors to look out to sea and contemplate our responsibility to protect the ocean for future generations. Unveiling this work now is significant because next week UN talks will resume to agree a strong global oceans treaty. It’s a crucial moment for us here in Portland and for the whole world.”
Wren’s Stone
This Architecture Stone commemorates Wren’s 300th Anniversary - and the 40th year of the Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust teaching carving stone in its place of origin - supported by The Worshipful Company of Masons and The Island and Royal Manor of Portland Court Leet.
