The quarry as sculpture: the place of making Submitted by David Anthony Paton to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography In June 12th 2015 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. DAVID A. PATON The quarry as sculpture: the place of making ABSTRACT Practices of sculpture and geography have collaborated ever since Stone Age humans hoisted up rocks to point them into the air. The ephemerality of life was rendered in a circle of forms and mass that celebrated the union of sky, earth and dwelling. Through the manipulation of stone, the land became a place, it became a home, it became situated and navigable. As millennia unfolded, the land was written with the story of itself. The creativity woven into the story of place is an evolution of material collaborations. In recent decades, academic geographers have explored the realms of creativity in their work, and sculptors have critically engaged with the nature of place. I have united these disciplines in the exploration of a truth of materials. The aim of the research was to investigate the relationship between making and place. The structure of my PhD focussed on the development of a transdisciplinary research environment that could host a range of creative practices around stone-working. I developed a long-term relationship with Trenoweth Dimension Granite Quarry, working as an apprentice sawman and mason. Here, I examined the everyday practices of labour and skill development, from which emerged deeper material and human interactions, that went on to inform my sculpture and modes of making. Arguing that granite has threads of relational agency embedded within its matrix, I initiated a series of practices that made use of my emerging knowledge as a granite-quarry worker, cast within experimental sculpture, texts, performance, photography and film. By formulating my methods around the vibrancy of matter, I disclosed new materialisms and more-than-human relations. This assemblage of documentation and artwork records and reflects on a !i series of practices and processes in tension. This productive tension arises from a re- rendering of artisanal practice as a research method; ushering in modes of representation as loops of experience and interpretation take place across different sites, spaces and times of mediation. The objective for the PhD research was to present a critically informed practice of sculpture-as-ethnography that could not only provide a model for practice-based research in general, but also significantly expand what might be meant by stone-work. This PhD by alternative submission is presented as a Commentary with an accompanying Digital Archive website. !ii !iii TABLE OF CONTENTS: Page ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii PREFACE 1 1. The Commentary structure and Digital Archive 1 2. How to use the Digital Archive 4 INTRODUCTION 6 1. Creative geographies 6 2. A sculptor in geography 10 3. Key themes and terms 19 i. Social makings of the artisan 20 ii. Time and space 23 iii. Quarrying the more-than-human 25 iv. Practicing a laboured lifeworld 26 4. Positioning the research: the progression of the Commentary 35 CHAPTER ONE - THE LAY OF THE LAND 43 1. Cornish granite: a brief geological account 43 2. Trenoweth Quarry: the place 45 !iv 3. The granites at Trenoweth Quarry 47 4. The people of Trenoweth Quarry 49 5. The tools of Trenoweth Quarry 50 CHAPTER TWO - NEW MATERIALISMS OF QUARRYING ACTIONS 52 1. Reading a stitch-split through Merleau-Ponty 52 2. Merleau-Ponty, new materialism and the future of matter 64 CHAPTER THREE - ASSEMBLAGES OF GRANITE 73 1. Footprint: The Soul of the Geologic 79 i. In the quarry 85 ii. Growing pains 90 2. Thinking through a Quoin 96 i. Why make a quoin? 96 ii. Surface tension 98 iii. Again… why make a quoin? 114 iv. The granite de-surfaced 116 3. The rhythm of the assemblage 117 CHAPTER FOUR - MORE-THAN-SCULPTURE 123 1. The nature of sculpture 123 i. What is sculpture? 125 ii. What does truth to materials mean? 132 !v iii. Towards sculpture-as-ethnography 138 2. Hepworth and Smithson: the fullness of empty places 141 i. Approaching the void 141 ii. The void 148 3. Refining a sculpture-as-ethnography practice 154 CHAPTER FIVE - PRACTICES AND PROCESSES: MATERIALS IN TENSION 162 1. Framing the Digital Archive 162 2. The Digital Archive: No. 1 - No. 27 169 CHAPTER SIX - CONCLUDING A SCULPTURE-AS-ETHNOGRAPHY PRACTICE 177 1. Assembling the assemblage 178 2. The ethnographic turn 182 3. The quarry as sculpture 190 4. Sculpture-as-ethnography, the way ahead 192 BIBLIOGRAPHY 195 !vi ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL Digital Archive website address: blogs.exeter.ac.uk/dapaton Username: examiner Password: examiner To view the digital archive please type the address into your browser and then add the username and password into the required fields. It is recommended that the reader have available a computer with a large screen and internet access during the reading of the Commentary. Headphones are also recommended, but be aware some audio pieces are loud, while others are quiet. !vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my wonderful supervisors Caitlin DeSilvey and James Ryan for their enthusiasm, encouragement and support throughout my PhD. I am so grateful for their friendship and understanding during what has been one of the most exciting and challenging periods of my life. Their commitment to academic rigour and creative expression has helped shape my research, allowing me to fulfil so much more than I could have ever expected. I am extremely grateful to Tim Marsh, owner of Trenoweth Dimension Granite Quarry. I thank him firstly for allowing me to conduct my research in his quarry, but also for being such a supportive friend. Tim’s unique qualities of toughness in both body and mind, his kindness, generosity, endurance and sense of inclusivity shine through in all he does. I have learnt a great deal about quarrying and granite from him, much of which is embedded in the work I have produced. I would like to express my thanks to Ernie Hillson, head mason at Trenoweth Quarry until 2014, for teaching me about what it means to be a granite mason in Cornwall. Ernie’s stories from his quarrying life since the 1960s have been laugh-out-loud funny, hugely entertaining and highly informative. I would also like to acknowledge all my other friends and colleagues at the quarry who have contributed to my work and research: Charles Addison, Steve Brown, Peter Davey, Stephen Dyer, Mark Medlyn, Ian Pollard, Andrew Rogers and Stephane Rouget. A special thanks to Mark Harris for his compliments and ideas over the years, and for the many conversations about the weather. !viii I would like to express a special gratitude to my close friend Rose Ferraby, someone with whom I have been able to share a deep respect for stone and quarrying during our time as PhD researchers. I thank Rose for the many chats over the phone, for her humour, creativity, rigour and energy. I would also like to acknowledge the friendship, support and spirit of collaboration provided by Jane Bailey, Natalia Eernstman, Alyson Hallett and Andy Whall, during our shared experiences of carrying out PhDs. I would like to thank my father John who, in our all too brief shared moments, made a deep and lasting impression on my career in the world of stone. I would also like to thank my mother Angela, my brother Andrew and his wife Joan for their unwavering encouragement and support throughout my academic studies. Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my partner Jane for all that she has done during our journey to get to Cornwall and throughout the PhD. Last, but by no means least, I also have to thank my beautiful 5 year old son Elliot for being just such an amazing part of my life. !ix Only stones look on and marvel at the briefness of people, clouds, trees. Alyson Hallett, ‘Only Stones’ (2013) !x !xi PREFACE 1. The Commentary structure and Digital Archive My PhD by alternative submission is presented as a Commentary with an accompanying Digital Archive. A focus on practice is made explicit throughout the methodology, content and outputs of the research. The delivery of the alternative submission was flexible in terms of how the final outputs could be presented, with decisions about how I collated and presented my research left open for as long as possible. I needed to analyse and synthesise the work I had done in order to generate a cohesive solution to the problem of its presentation. As the relationship between different work-modes at the quarry became apparent, I developed a sensitivity to very subtle tensions between documentation and creative processing. I also became aware early on in the PhD of the jostling claims of masonry and sculpture, with each strand of granite working contributing related but differing values towards the research. I was aware of not wanting to isolate any one form of making, and for there to be a degree of incompleteness in the various makings, leaving them more porous to one another. My apprenticeship in the quarry saw a progression from the most basic job of sawman, to mason and finally to specialist carver, where I introduced my skills from years as a professional stone sculptor.