Diving In The Cool Depths Of A ‘Wine Dark Sea’ by Bruce Davies

It is the position of BasementArtsProject when commissioning projects, to do so in such a way that allows a project room to grow and develop over time. In doing so it allows a multitude of reference points to emerge; the intention of the artist, the purpose of BasementArtsProject and the needs of the audience. ‘Resisting The Rising Sea’ is the third project to be realised at BasementArtsProject by Leeds based artist Keith Ackerman. The first project ‘MantlePiece’ was a collaboration with artist and lighting designer Adam Glatherine. The exhibition had a very singular feel to it as it looked at the translucency of Italian Carrara Marble. The second project was a major public sculpture commission in the form of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.

Presenting the true intentions of the artist is always about the vision they have for their own work and practice; the opportunity to experiment and get as close to their desired outcome with as few constraints on that practice as possible. In terms of BasementArtsProject’s purpose, this is two-fold. One aspect is to support the artist in achieving their vision, the other is to address the needs of an audience that may or may not understand that vision. For us, this is done by creating a balance between the intention and the need. BasementArtsProject views the needs of the audience as a contract of understanding concerning art and artistic practice in relation to the viewer's own understanding of the world.

During the installation of this exhibition Keith asked me ‘what if people look at it and ask what I have done, what are we meant to be looking at, have you not just stuck seven rocks in a room?’ ‘Resisting The Rising Sea’ is an exhibition that seems, on the surface, very spare and minimal, the absolute antithesis of Edek’s ‘Apocalypse Remix’, but that would be to not give it the credit that it deserves. In fact the effort that has gone into the production of this series of works has taken the best part of two years, and has produced a view of this stone not often revealed. The exhibition takes a material that is generally too hard to sculpt with and reveals the amazing variety of colour in this billion year old stone.

Keith has for some time been a fairly regular visitor to the area of Loch Torridon, a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland in the Northwestern Highlands. The nature of the terrain was created by glacial processes and the rock that the landscape consists of was formed around 959,000,000 - 1 billion years ago.

One of the defining characteristics of Torridon Sandstone is its sedimentary nature. It is about as hard as stone can get without becoming an igneous rock. The layering also means that in the carving process it has a tendency to shear off in layers, thereby meaning that it is not a good stone for sculpture. This exhibition not only shows the rock in a new light but also tells a story about the intended life of this material when it is quarried.

The photograph as you enter the exhibition space gives a view of the cliff face at Loch Torridon in which you can see the unusual quality of this material. Instead of the usual roundedness of rock that is continually pounded and washed at by the sea, everything here is jagged and in straight lines along the bedding plane.

Two of the first three pieces, presented as a single triptych (959.1: Resisting The Rising Sea) in this room contain echoes of the cliff structure of the photo, perfectly straight lines carved into these large uneven pieces of stone. This in itself is a hard enough task that cost the life of a number of chisels in the process, and typically it is not just a carved line but a smooth and polished groove despite its narrowness: a graceful contrast between the ruggedness and the eroded lines. These three pieces are displayed on mirrored surfaces that also echo the watery reflection of the cliff face in the photograph. The central piece of this triptych is presented in a different orientation to the others and sets out a different purpose: there are no grooves but instead a small polished surface, a tentative exploration into how far this material can be taken in a sculptural direction.

Moving through the exhibition; the second work, also presented here in the form of a triptych, (959.2: Wine-dark) takes the single polished surface from the previous piece and uses it as the device by which to alter these stones.

It is this part of the process that brings Noguchi’s quote into play.

“...these works are my intrusions forgiven by nature (or stones)”

— ISAMU NOGUCHI

The decisions that are arrived at are the result of a conversation with the stone: a process of divining inspiration from the surface and the facets and coming to an agreement as to how best its quality is brought out. Keith has then set about trying to create the highest possible polish on these small sections. The effect is a stepping stone pathway across the three pieces. On the middle piece there is one polished surface that highlights the layers bedding plane. The effect of this is to create a wood like effect, mahogany or teak maybe? If you allow your eyes to follow the grain in the polished section the grain becomes visible in the unpolished surface. A detail that you would not see without having first seen the polished section.

The ‘Wine Dark’ of the title is a reference to Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. Here the pieces are placed on a dark plastic surface that reflects the work in a similar manner to the stainless steel and mirrors used in the first triptych. In this case though the reflections feel more like the rocks of Crete rising out of the “wine dark sea”.

Throughout each work the difference in colouration through polishing becomes apparent drawing  attention to what must be the many different chemicals that make up this generally ‘unsculpturable’ stone.

At the far end of the room there is one more image, another landscape from Loch Torridon. In the far distance the natural landscape of the Scottish Highlands, almost obscured by the industrial landscape of the middle distance featuring an oil rig. In front of this, almost obscuring everything, a massive spoil heap. The rubble is crushed Torridon Sandstone, an allusion to this material's actual purpose. One billion years in the making to become aggregate for road building.

The last of the new works made in Torridon Sandstone is a piece which admittedly confused the artist in the initial selection, making him consider whether or not to include it. The piece (959.3: Convex with facets) feels like a section of trunk from a felled tree. And herein lies the confusion, as to why all of the surfaces of the piece are so rounded in a way that none of the others are. The work has three polished facets and is placed on a plinth away from all of the others, not just to highlight its difference to all of the other works in the show, but also to obscure two of the surfaces as an encouragement to feel the piece rather than just look. The rounded shape of the stone has allowed for a conchoidal polished surface to emerge along one edge, meanwhile the most visible polished surface along the top edge has a bright pink vein running through it.  

This exhibition is not a political statement about green issues, although it does throw into sharp focus certain aspects of how we view nature, but is in fact a meditation on the unsung qualities of a material that is not meant to be seen in this context.

There are three more works in the show that are not directly related to the theme. Back in late 2023 I worked with Jeffrey Knopf on an installation in his studio of Keith’s work for the Manchester Contemporary / Paradise Works Open Studios event. The piece utilised an old work of Keith’s, an unintended sculptural object from the desk in his studio, a rough wooden post previously used as a plinth in one of Jeff’s works, and rubble from the creation of several pieces in Carrara Marble and Tadcaster Limestone. So pleased was Keith with the treatment of his piece for this show that he was pleased when we suggested that we would work together on another unusual treatment of his work.

In the window space on the threshold of front and back is a basalt piece (Basalt with Concaves. 2012) made of rock sourced from the other end of the country - Cornwall. This piece precedes the current work by more than a decade but has the beginnings of his fascination with the connection between erosion and the conchoidal form. It is presented on a glass slab that was actually taken from another work, here it creates a reflective surface beneath the Basalt connecting the work in front and back room.

Outside of the main space in a place we have not used for exhibiting before, the void beneath the stairs, two pieces both entitled ‘Slow Resolution’. The front piece is carved in plaster (2017) and is painted black, whilst the piece in the rear (2019) is cast in glass from the front plaster piece. The title refers to the lengthy process of decision making in relation to the production of the original work in Carrara Marble. The piece is finally resolved as part of the artist’s grieving process for his mother. Here though the title refers to how the pieces emerge from the dark, honing into view, resolving until, at just the right angle, the light from the glass piece creates a halo around the dark plaster piece.