Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The 'Seed' at the Core ... Eden Project Day 3

... encouraging respect and duty to hope for the future!


This most perfect of forms is a huge sculpture made of local granite by Peter Randall Page for "The Core" building at the Eden Project. (click on his name and read from his website about realising this work).



This space was quiet yet had such a tangible energy field...the work sitting as it does enclosed pod-like within walls that cocoon one in the space with the work. It was hard not to feel a sense of being in a place where the kind of collective effort that once manifested in pyramids and cathedrals was in evidence once more... even if not in the way we think symbolises grandness. Only this time the God being honoured seemed to be earth and life itself.This is the central core of a project cathedral-like in its audacity and its potency as a symbol for the future.

I have long hoped to come to this place... so being here, after not travelling far these past 23 years, does feel like a privilege. I am finding it mysteriously difficult to comprehend all-at-once the enormity of the project... and at the core of The Core of this project is this symbol called 'Seed'.







On Monday Richard Good, Creative Catalyst at EP, took me on a guided tour of the Pit which is the Eden Project... with a special detour to view this work at the centre of the project in more ways than one! The centre of a magnificent building known as The Core ... designed on the basis of the Fibonaci principal sits this potent sculpture.

The Core building from left


Inside the core... photos from the website - see more.

I'm presently sitting in the Foundation building where many work who are involved in the shaping of the public programs and key messages one way or another. Hearing everyone work, the meetings that take place...the cross-pollination and complex cross-overs ... provides much food for thought. One hears of the many challenges as well as successes that feed into the ongoing evolution of this forward thinking project.

Step into the bathroom where Dyson hand driers 'scrape' one's hands dry and use a tiny half the energy normally used by similar machines. The colourful office layout...the lunch room serving good quality food... the fact the major public eating place inside the complex is a bakery where long benches located in the midst of the room reveal the process to all.

As I type I think of place I must head to see something not yet investigated. I did a lot of walking Monday and Tuesday as the weather was warm and mostly clear... now the sky is grey, rain intermittent and might need to find a brolly! Lunchtime aromas are calling me... so I'll be off for now!

Ive lots more photos to share so I will be back. I you want to catch the post on the artistic inspiration I found on the weekend at picturesque St ives go to the Studio Archive blog. I will try to keep up to date as it makes it much easier in the long run with my documentation... so much I don't want to forget!
ciao,
Sophie

PS:  read this website page for an enlightening story about the copper roof on the Core Building...

What is a responsible metals and minerals supply chain?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! To the sculpture and Eden Project. I don't know how you are able to process all that you are experiencing and continue to blog.

This is so exciting!

Sophie Munns said...

Hi Mary,
Good to hear from you!
at first it seemed all too hard ...blogging on the go!
But once the photos were piling up and I found nights in hotels pretty uneventful ( and legs tired from walking) I am glad for this process of writing up the days activities.

My first two days at Eden were huge... this morning I needed to sit quietly in the foundation building and make sense of the experience ... just for me.

I'm having short conversations with so many people. Everyone here is doing something curious and lateral... from the security guards that drive the mini-vehicles around ... to the woman at lunch today who is working on getting people out of our dependency on cars, the person in charge of the huge Eden bakery, the guy who reads stories to young children in the allotment garden, the person in charge of publicity material... the volunteers, visitors from around the world...
everyone here talks to each other... not long rambling tales... but working out what the other is about because people are doing so many curious things...as I said!

Glad you popped in... good painting Mary!

Velma Bolyard said...

that granite seed is so peaceful and strong, and the roof story makes me happy. this place, this eden, is fascinating.

Anonymous said...

what an adventure - it must have felt very special for you - a culmination..

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