The Root Still Grips the Stone reflects upon the imperceptible processes of change that shape the landscape in deep time. The series initiates a dialogue between fragments of ecosystems originating in the remote past, that persist in the landscape in various iterations; folded sedimentary rock, a submerged Bronze Age forest, fossilised trees and extant temperate rainforest. Drawing on the phenomenon of shifting baseline syndrome (the idea that successive generations become accustomed to increasingly deteriorated ecosystems at a rate that is too slow to cause alarm), the work speaks to an unspoken collective anxiety surrounding the prospect of ecological collapse.
The pictures were made at mostly coastal sites strung out along the exposed south west edge of Britain from Cardigan Bay to Lulworth Cove, where an archive of successive versions of the landscape’s former self is laid bare. The interior of this part of the country is also home to the final fragments of temperate rainforest that once covered a large proportion of its landmass. The title ‘The Root Still Grips the Stone’ brings into focus the intertwining of organic and geological forms, and the entangled web of temporalities that are embodied by the landscape, in which we are all enmeshed.