“We tend to imagine stone as inert matter, obdurate in its fixity. But here in the rift it feels instead like a liquid briefly paused in its flow. Seen in deep time, stone folds as strata, gouts as lava, floats as plates, shifts as shingle. Over aeons, rock absorbs, transforms, levitates from seabed to summit.”
― Robert Macfarlane, Underland: A Deep Time Journey
Video from The Met
Stone: Making and Breaking Legacies: Immaterial - Season 2, Episode 1
"What happens when the unbreakable breaks? Throughout art museums around the world, you’ll find ancient stone statues of rulers and marble monuments immortalizing noblemen. These objects were made to survive decay and destruction, to remain intact and whole. But from the moment that stone is extracted from the earth, it is bound to become a more fragmented version of itself–chiseled, chipped, and sometimes shattered over time. In this episode, we examine the many ways that stone breaks. How can a statue’s cracks and cavities tell a more complex story of our humanity? Featured artworks: Tullio Lombardo, Adam, ca. 1490–95: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect... Statue of Gudea, named “Gudea, the man who built the temple, may his life be long,” ca. 2090 BCE. Mesopotamia: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect... Head of Gudea, ca. 2090 BCE. Mesopotamia: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect... Gudea, Prince of Lagash, with architectural plan. Neo-Sumerian, ca. 2120 BCE. Diorite, 93 x 41 cm. AO2. Photo: René-Gabriel Ojéda. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:... " from the video introduction
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