Works of the Week I Tim Harrisson, Rotherly Stones I & II, 2016 & DRIFT, 2006
Tim Harrisson
DRIFT, 2006
Chicksgrove limestone and Carrara marble
38 x 84 x 37 cm
14 ⁹⁄₁₀ x 33 x 14 ½ in.
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Sited in the Summer House at Roche Court, DRIFT and Rotherly Stones demonstrate Tim Harrisson’s exploration of place, history and the spatial relationship between forms.
In Rotherly Stones, Harrisson examines the properties of Purbeck marble, and its history of traditional use as a building material in English cathedrals; particularly in the craftmanship of the tile flooring, which he exhibits with skilfully carved diagonal levels. Its name, a reference to a series of drawings made by Pitt Rivers of the Rotherly Settlement on Cranborne Chase, prompts us to consider how stone can be revealing of place, and the history beneath our feet.
Hand-carved with perfectly parallel ridges, the limestone and marble components of DRIFT seem to ripple into one another, suggesting tectonic movement and transformation. It chronicles the metamorphosis of limestone, how through heat, pressure and geological process, it becomes marble over many millennia.
Tim Harrisson Rotherly Stones I & II and DRIFT sited in the Summer House at Roche Court together with Trevor Clarke Opportunity seldom knocks twice, 2008, Hopton Wood Limestone.
Sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker, Tim Harrisson was born in Essex in 1952. His practice is directly influenced by the formation of the landscape from a geological perspective. Harrisson studied at Hammersmith College of Art (1969-1970) and Norwich Art School (1970-73). After graduating from Byam School of Fine Art in 1975, he worked as a woodsman and welder. In 1988, he was a Sculptor in Residence at Red House Museum, Christchurch and in 2013, was elected to the Royal West of England Academy.
Throughout his practice, Tim Harrisson has completed several major public commissions, including his work Granite Sculpture II for BAA Southampton Airport (1995); Reflection, Epsom College, Surrey (2000) and Pegasus for Chatsworth House, Derbyshire (2002). In 2010, Sounding, which he carved from a single piece of Welsh bog oak was permanently installed in the crypt at Winchester Cathedral. He has exhibited widely, with his work being included in solo and group shows at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park; the New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park; the Eagle Gallery, London; Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London; Rabley Gallery, Wiltshire and Messums, Wiltshire.
