The Quarry as Sculpture: The Place of Making

This paper traces a geographical reading of worked Cornish granite, evidenced by a sustained period of research in Trenoweth Dimension Granite quarry near Penryn, in Cornwall. As a sculptor exploring a practice of geography, I weave a narration of my auto-ethnographic research as an apprentice sawman and mason into a discourse on time and materiality. I focus on processes of accumulating familiarity with material subjects, leading to the erosion of fixed surface structures. I address issues arising from this research related to place making; identifying modes of representation, craft, labour practices, and the relational activities of worked matter within the context of a working quarry. Taking Ingold's call to redress material culture's emphasis on materiality over materials, I argue for an appreciation of matter as sentient, where the destabilised surface forms the conduit for richer relations to form and grow.