CHESIL BEACH A series of stations, modern confessionals, where one confesses solely to oneself through the practice of meditation. One method is by absorbing energy from nature through simply admiring its beauty or contemplating it, and the program of the stations is to provide a place in which to do this.
The stations describe the harshness of the site, Chesil Beach, its energy, its dynamic turmoil and transformations. They are the images of the process of folding and unfolding, in order to feed back into each other and themselves.
The stations are placed so as to urge a passage, which commands the space in which it is embedded. The critical arrangement of the stations is that of their order. The ultimate intention is to respond and merge with this motion. Thus the form and program of the stations are evolved as movement, namely the movement of the elements on the site, Chesil Beach. The motion is that of the shifting elements, made tangible by the stations.
Chesil may be seen as the final stage in a slow landward and south-eastward movement of sea floor material in front of the waves, translated by the general direction of revolution that the stations trace. Waves do not break directly parallel with the trend of the coast, but approach at an oblique angle; this is reflected in the positioning of the stations along the beach.
Beach drifting takes place in both directions, pebble size increases eastwards above the water line, and westward below. A contradiction echoed in the order of the stations and their location on land and in the high water region, an element of revealment and concealment is at play.
The shadows cast by the sun throughout the day directly inform the profiles of the forms, the angle of the sun throughout the year provides an axis relevant to the stations’ illumination.
The gentle turbulence of the shingle will influence the stations gradually, nourishing them as they sink into its incessant depths, ultimately being teased by their fluctuating, liquid context.
