The Singers (Hang up your tools) (2015)
The quarrymen on Portland worked by hand, singing songs to make sure to keep time. Keeping in time as you work made sure the stones broke cleanly. Stone that broke unevenly was wasted, and the men were not paid for their labour. Portland stone was highly prized, used in building much of London, and remains so today, although it is no longer extracted by hand.
I hung the stone-working tools as an installation resembling a wind chime in the outdoors workshop, so that they would continue to sing in accordance with the sound and memory of the quarrymen. The sound that the chime generates is according to ‘chance,’ or more accurately, is influenced by the whole landscape as wind blows and is shaped by the land before arriving in the workshop; the microcosm demonstrates the macrocosm.
The other sound in the video below is the sound of chisels in the outdoor workshop. Working stone by hand generates a distinctive ‘heartbeat’ rhythm, the sound of the stone being worked by living things. By memorialising the old quarrymen through a sound installation, a sense of their continuing presence, or an awareness of their absence (depending on your point of view) is created. This sensation is created in real-time, as the tools sway and connect with each other.
Hand tools are still required for the fine work of artists and skilled stonemasons. By hanging the tools they are deprived of their intended utility, perhaps mirroring the fate of the quarrymen whose labour was replaced with machines’. The subtitle, as well as being descriptive, links to the idea of ‘hanging up your boots,’ either at the end of the day or for retirement.
Tout Quarry (site of special scientific interest), isle of Portland, Dorset. 2015
MASONS’ TOOLS, WHEEL, STRING
With thanks to Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust