A walk led by sculptor Dr David Paton and urban geologist Dr Ruth Siddall, exploring the tooling marks found on granite buildings and structures in Helston. The walk will set out from and return to CAST.
Dr David Paton is a Senior Lecturer at Falmouth University. He has been a practising artist and stone sculptor since 1997, and for many years worked extensively on public art projects. Soon after moving to Cornwall in 2005 David started working with Trenoweth Dimensional Granite Quarry near Falmouth, where his deep affinity for the material and people led him to start a PhD titled The Quarry as Sculpture: The Place of Making (2015).
Dr Ruth Siddall is a geologist specialising in the study of minerals and rocks used in cultural heritage. She has worked extensively on the characterisation and analysis of artists’ pigments, ceramics and building materials, including mortars, bricks and stone. She is a co-author of The Pigment Compendium, and the author The Building Stones of Helston, a new guide published to coincide with Water and Stone 2023 (copies will be available from CAST Café). Dr Siddall is currently collaborating in research studying materiality with colleagues at UCL Slade School of Fine Art.
The walk is part of Water and Stone/Dowr ha Men, a three-day celebration of granite, exploring the geological formation of the stone and its impact on landscape and built heritage, as well as the ways in which it is shaped by human industry and in turn shapes the lives of those who live and work with it. The event begins with a keynote by Dr Ruth Siddall on Friday evening and continues on Saturday with walks, demonstrations and a programme of talks, and on Sunday with more walks and a pigment workshop.
Those booking talk tickets will have the first opportunity to reserve places for the walks on Saturday 14 October and will be contacted individually. Any remaining places will be made available in the week beginning 9 October.
Water and Stone is made possible by the support of Falmouth University, with FEAST, Cornwall Council, Arts Council England, Cornwall Community Foundation and Helston Town Council.