WORK OF THE WEEK: Peter Randall-Page, Fructus, 2009

Peter Randall-Page
Fructus, 2009
Kilkenny limestone
250 x 160 x 160 cm
98 ½ x 63 x 63 in.

‘Geometry is the theme on which nature plays her infinite variations and can be seen as a kind of pattern book on which the most complex and sophisticated structures are based’.
-Peter Randall-Page

Peter Randall-Page's sculptures explore the geometry within natural order and the mathematic principles underlying organic growth. Carved from Kilkenny limestone, a sedimentary rock formed in coastal areas over millions of years and teeming with fossilised remains of plant and animal life, the medium lends itself to the sculptures' characteristic appearance. The stone has a fine grain texture and its dark colour gives a visual weight.

Randall-Page describes the sculpting process as one of revelation, carving away the layers of stone to reveal the piece within it. Fructus, Corpus and Phyllotaxus each stand at over 2.5 metres tall and weigh more than 12 tonnes. It’s unusual to be able to quarry Kilkenny limestone blocks of this size and quality, rendering these sculptures all the more rare and unique.

Peter Randall-Page
Corpus, 2009
Kilkenny limestone
235 x 160 x 160 cm
7ft 8 ½ x 5ft 3 x 5ft 3 in.

Fructus is rooted in the study of botanical form and growth patterns, emphasising the fecundity and sensuality of ripe fruit. Each lobe has a taught skin, like the meniscus on a drop of water, becoming slightly pendulous and more bodily towards the bottom. Corpus is a more anatomical work than Fructus. Based on the idea of an endless coil, the latent energy here is of a different kind, the allusion is slightly disturbing, possibly referring to snakes, worms, or the hemispheres of the brain. Unravelling the compressed coil in one’s imagination implies a potentially much larger presence than its physical dimensions.

Peter Randall-Page

Phyllotaxus, 2013

Kilkenny limestone257 x 188 x 188 cm
101 ½ x 74 x 74 in.

Phyllotaxus is the most mathematically pure of the three, based, as it is, on a fundamental growth pattern found in many botanical forms such as the arrangements of seeds in a sunflower head, or the positioning of leaves on a plant stem to maximise their exposure to light. This kind of geometry is known as ‘spiral phyllotaxis’ and relates to the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio. The sequence involves a series where the numbers are determined by the sum of the two preceding numbers in the series and results in the spirals we see all arounds us in the natural world, as well as in shells, galaxies and hurricanes.