Description

Tom Baskeyfield, Churchside 1, 2016  is a relief image of a stone which he made in glistening graphite. Working alongside Mario Popham, Tom made it by rubbing stone ‘setts’ in the town of Macclesfield. Meanwhile, Mario Popham took photographs of the landscape and the town. It became their joint ecological place-based project, Shaped by Stone. They demonstrated how the town both emerged from the landscape, and still retains it in its built environment. We exhibited this project at GroundWork in 2017, Shaped by Stone, alongside herman de vries’s exhibition ‘on the stony path’.

About the artist

Tom Baskeyfield specialises in a unique relief drawing technique, embossed rubbing with graphite. His works make direct contact with the stony landscape. But they exist as glistening abstract images, evoking stone, but establishing quite another kind of mystical presence. Mario Popham’s photography gives us portraits, a range of insights, vistas, details of buildings and industrial contexts. The dialogue between the two artists makes this an absorbing and varied project and book.

Tom Baskeyfield said: “Over recent years my practice has developed in response to
the ecological crisis we find ourselves in, and a concern for how we got here. I am
moved to seek out the connections and relationships we have with each other and
the earth. This takes me back to the land where I am drawn, in particular, to fields
and quarries as potential bridging places, sites of interaction between ourselves and
the planet. The relationship we have with the land is deeply complex, formed over
millennia. I see art as a lens, and a language, to explore this relationship and to
respond and communicate.”