Richard has photographed the Towner Art Centre for Rick Mather Architects....
[read more...]'TEXTURES OF TIME: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE.' by Richard Chivers.
This project investigates the exposed surfaces where mineral extraction is or has taken place at a number of key localities around Sussex. In particular I am interested in the connection of these sites to geology, archaeology and history and how these spaces have been shaped and re-shaped.
The sedimentary rocks exposed in these quarries come from the geological time scale known as the Cretaceous™ period. The €˜Cretaceous period started around 135 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and ended 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs became extinct. Contemplating these epic geological timescales, we are encouraged to question our understanding of time and the transient existence of human life on this planet. It highlights the delicate nature of life on earth, with the rocks themselves providing insights into the life and destruction of the Dinosaurs and other creatures at that time.
Although these quarries represent relatively small scars on the Sussex landscape, they highlight the human need to constantly shape and re-shape our natural environment. The photographs themselves become a metaphor for larger concerns regarding the health of our planet and whether nature can recover from increasing human destruction.
'THE GEOLOGICAL SCENARIO'. by John Cooper
The rocks exposed in the pits and quarries which are the subject of Richard Chivers' photographs all date from a period of geological time named after the most prominent of Sussex rocks - the Chalk. The Cretaceous Period ( Creta - Latin for Chalk) began around 135 million years ago when dinosaurs ruled the continents, and ended 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs became extinct. During this 70 million year chunk of Earth's history, rocks were deposited in a part of the globe we now call Sussex, in landscapes which varied from the lush vegetation of a sub-tropical plain criss-crossed by a complex of rivers to the calm waters of a deep, clear and warm sea.
Many of the photographs show the orange sandstones typical of the Folkestone beds, laid down by the rivers which flowed off the highlands to the north, fed by heavy rains of tropical monsoons, just as in India today. In later, calmer conditions, the sands became thickly bedded, hard rocks that now form the high rocks seen in the Weald of central Sussex. A feature of many of the Wealden rocks is the presence of iron oxides, which produce a variety of rusty colours from orange to browns and reds. It is when these iron compounds are exposed to the air that weathering occurs and they decay, often quite spectacularly: perhaps shown most notably in the quarry at Ashdown, where the blood red iron oxide hematite washes out when it reaches layers of impermeable clay.
The calm conditions of Wealden times led to the growth of forests and lakes, and the many fossils of ferns, dinosaurs, fish, crocodiles and masses of snails are testimony to the richness of that landscape. But the calm of millions of years was eventually ended by the gradual flooding of the land by the sea which was expanding southwards and westwards as the highlands to the north were eroded. And as practically every trace of land, from what was to become the British Isles vanished, the remains of trillions of tiny creatures slowly collected on the wide sea floor. Over the next 30 million years these deposits built up forming today what we call the Chalk, and this too is revealed in the photographs. It is of course in the white cliffs of the South Downs that this rock is most familiar, but long abandoned quarries litter the landscape.
Richard Chivers' photographs not only reveal aspects of working and closed quarries seldom seen by the majority of people, but also tell unsuspected stories of an ancient past long before humans.
John Cooper. Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove.
All images come in 2 sizes. 50x40in and 20x24in.
50x40in. Edition of 3 + 2 AP
20x24in. Edition of 8 + 2 AP