A landmark sculptural feature, consisting of twelve of the largest stones from Portland’s open cast quarries, will be transported one stone at a time and carefully positioned by quarryman Ralph Stone, whose skills have been passed down from father to son over 18 generations as far back as Sir Christopher Wren.
The sculpture is the concept of artist Hannah Sofaer from the Royal College of Art who works with the unique quality of light, carving properties of the stone and the quarrying process that reveals the geology, once an ancient seabed 150 million years ago. The stones position is precisely worked out for the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes and the Summer and Winter Solstices, with the diameter of the newly created aggregate platform relating to a minute proportion of the earths orbit around the sun, changing from a near perfect circle to an eclipse over a 100,000 year cycle.