Classifier
Liane Lang was supported by the George Frampton Fund at the Royal Academy of Art to create a public sculpture. The resulting work was launched September 6th at the National Stone Centre in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. The site is a public park comprised of seven disused former stone quarries.
Classifier is a 4 metre diameter, steel cone section of a limestone Classifier, weighing 4.5 tons. Once at work at Longcliffe Quarries, the resited cone would once have selected limestone by size. Over several months, the artist took photographs in the local area, both above and below ground and applied the images to the complex steel surfaces. The work brings together many types and uses of stone, both natural and industrial,from the neolithic arm chair at Harboro Rocks to the ancient quarries on Stanton Moor, to tunnels deep below ground, where limestone, Blue John and lead ore were extracted by generations of people living in Derbyshire.
Out of its original industrial context the object becomes strange, like a giant piece of space junk had landed here. Lang is interested in raising the question of What is Nature? And who are we within it? She chooses materials and processes, locations and imagery that traverse the geological with the industrial, emphasising ambiguities and exploring human industriousness as a starting point to effect change and save our own habitat.
The artist wants to thank everyone who helped make the project possible. Thanks to the RA George Frampton Committee, to Sarah Fry at IQ, Anna Farnsworth at NSC, Mark Whittaker and colleagues at Longcliffe Quarries, for making it possible. Mairead Rutter O’Connor and Astrid Babenko for traipsing across old quarries and ancient sites to be photographed. Scott Mead, Tim Burroughs and Anne Erhard at Bramley Studios for amazing print support. Martin Brooks, John and Jude Wheeldon, Jenny and Gabs Babenko, Bernie Rutter and Denis O’Connor, Chris and Sarah Armstrong and Kate Bellis for sustenance, shelter and moral support.