Dalziel + Scullion

Nomadic Boulders 2015

This work materialised an unseen natural occurrence for those who visit Britains most northerly settlement, John O Groats. This remote settlement is surrounded by the Pentland Firth, where some of the fastest sea currents in the world have been recorded and in which a number of large rolling boulders are known to traverse back and forward on the seabed. After a fierce storm in 2008 some of these boulders were released by the sea’s grip onto the coastline of Caithness, three of them are now presented on a series of arching beams or ribs that re animated the boulders past as a paean to their nomadic history. The ribs recall both the thrusting energy at work in the waters of the Firth, but also the mighty bodies of whales and maritime vessels that have navigated these treacherous waters for centuries. The ribs are sections from a 10m diam. circle, the tallest being 5.5 meters (not an uncommon height of wave during storms and high winds).