Chalk & Flint embodies the physicality of walking and is conceptually centred around an encounter with place, shown with the selection of geographically specific materials. Two of the films show the artist passing a rope through the drilled centre of a piece of chalk, filmed from two separate viewpoints. The other two films show the artist performing the same process with a piece of flint, filmed again from the same two viewpoints. This repetitive action measures the materiality of the stones in the presence of time and movement. The cutting edge of the flint brings about the demise of the rope, while the softness of the chalk gives way as the hemp fibers are passed through it. The rope is a cutting device and a material to be cut. The layering of dust on the floor records the passing of time, while the markings on the body provide a testimony to the physical endurance of grappling with the unwieldy weight of the stones. This is a work that is very much about experience and process. The performance ends when the stone drops, its duration determined by materiality. What remains is the rope, the rocks and the dust as two separate sets of residual sculptures.
Sculpture & Video
OBSA0001, OBSA0002, OBSA0003
Boardman, Harriet
School of Arts
Year: 2016
© Boardman, Harriet Published by Oxford Brookes University