It is difficult, almost impossible, not to be overawed by some of the works in this exhibition. Sculptures featuring stone and wood that were on this earth, some from three billion years ago, others much younger at a mere one or two billion years.
The work is tactile, inviting to the touch, demanding to be stroked and caressed, but where that takes you is up to you, but take you it will.
For me the echoes of time were embodied in the stone and wood, and the artist invites you to touch each piece, at first tentatively and then more surely.
Deep Time reveals the extraordinary, but little known three-billion-year history of our nation, told through the rocks that lie unnoticed beneath our feet.
The rocks exhibited in Deep Time are the oldest materials on earth which we are ever likely to encounter.
One of the exhibition highlights is Tower of Time, a 2.5m high sculpture featuring 16 rocks from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and one which includes a 2.5-billion-year-old White Anorthosite rock which is the same type of rock found on the Moon and brought back by the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. On top of this tower the artist has placed a highly polished stainless-steel element symbolising the Industrial Revolution which also reflects the image of the viewer, head tilted back, to him or herself.
The standout piece for me, and one that kept drawing me back on several occasions was Torus of Time (Torus – a surface or solid formed by rotating a closed curve, especially a circle, about a line which lies in the same plane but does not intersect it (like a ring doughnut)). In other words, it is possible to slide one’s hand over the entire piece without ever having to leave the surface. This is a one metre diameter ring presenting the country’s 3 billion year history as a ‘circle of time’. Having all geological periods represented within one country is rare.
The hole at the centre of the piece draws the eye, and in my case at least, it was as if one could have dived through it and be transported to another time. Too much sun? Possibly. Too much science fiction? Again possibly, but this is a piece deserving of the highest praise, its surface smooth, and cool to the touch, a ring made up of various coloured pieces of polished stone, at once tactile and aesthetically pleasing.
Other pieces blend polished and rough untouched surfaces to great effect, there is so much to explore here that I suspect that one visit may not be enough, and my wife has already demanded that I accompany her, so that she can explore the exhibition for herself.
Elsewhere in the gallery, and no less breath-taking, are several sculptures made from teak. The teak was enroute from Yangon (then Rangoon) in July 1917 to Liverpool Dockyards when its cargo ship was torpedoed in the Irish Sea. Undisturbed for a century before it was raised and brought to the artist’s attention.
These works are very much a collaboration between Angela Palmer, marine wood boring insects and the sea. Such is the density of the teak the outer layer has scarcely been penetrated. The artist has polished the preserved wood in order to highlight its richly varied red hue, whilst leaving, untouched, nature’s carving to great effect.
This is an important exhibition and one well worth seeking out.
Deep Time: Uncovering Our Hidden Past
An exhibition of Sculpture by Angela Palmer
Wednesday 21st June – Saturday 16th September 2023 10.00am – 6.00pm
The Pangolin Gallery, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG