Westlakes Research Institute

1996

This was an opportunity to create a unified scheme of artwork integrated into both the exterior and interior spaces of the new science park building. I took as my starting point the underlying geology of this area of the Lake District, natural sciences and the notion of humans interacting with the environment. Much of the work has now unfortunately been destroyed by subsequent rebuild schemes over the years.

The centrepiece of the courtyard was a triangular stacking of green Cumberland slates, 3m high and lit at night. The sculpture combined contemporary form with a timeless, elemental presence. This complimented the surrounding labyrinth created in engraved Cumberland slate that depicts the evolution of life on our planet. Every two centimetres on the ninety-metre-long path represents one million years of evolution. The first life forms only appear in the last twelve metres. Dinosaurs appear for well over three metres but so far human beings can only lay claim to three centimetres! I depicted this with handprints from my two children, my daughter being just a week old at the time.

Inside the building, I created a spiral of slate shards suspended in the atrium. Four large glass frames held varying grades of stone dust from the local geology – coal, slate, limestone and hematite - the settling of stone dust becoming like geological sections. This was further developed by my ten-metre-long etching on the courtyard windows, a 1:25,000 cross-section through England on the axis of the building.

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