‘The Zechstein Sea is an ancient body of salt water, now existing as a geological seam of salt extending across Northern Europe from Ireland to Russia. As the seam progresses eastwards and deepens into what was a body of salt water, the mineral content changes and the colour and density of the salt varies: giving rise to brown salt in Ireland; a grey colour in the UK; red and blue in Germany; and white in Poland.
As part of an ongoing project I have been creating carvings from rocks found in salt mines acrosss Europe tapping into this seam. These vessels range from a roughly hewn rock to a finely carved bowl; they are a manifestation of this ancient sea, an enduring connection that defies contemporary borders and nation states. At the same time, the forms reflect their simple origins in the collosal power of today’s mining industry: the digging out of the earth and the hollows that remain.
Salt is hygroscopic by nature. It has a need to absorb water, in essence to return to being the sea. Given this property, the vessels are unusable objects. Rather they are hosts, a symbol of openness and a meditation on the extraordinary world of little things, conveying the idea of the sea contained in a salt crystal.’
