Benjamin C Dearnley Fragments of our time
International Festival of Stone
Montaigu-De Quercy
August 4-9 2014
and below, The Bristol Festival of Stone
The festival of stone originates form this beautiful region of southern France with Laurent Donnadieu organising the events for a week of art, music and dance. The following images show something of the monumental task of creating a giant with a mission... This collaboration was created with Duncan Elliott and a lot of help from my friends in France, Laurent, Vincent, David, Romain to name just a few. Duncan sellected the many natural stones for the body, the metal Team connected them all and the carved aspects were added along with the stained glass eyes, which wee lit from inside the giant and became alive after dusk.
Thank you to Laurent for inviting me to take part in this extraordinary event and all the team for making it a great experience. The giant puppet will be going on tour in 2015.
UK Festival of Stone 2013 Bristol
A short video at the start of 10 days of intense stone carving.
2013 and the FESTIVAL OF STONE 31st May to 9th June.
My sculpture 'EMERGENCE' has a direct link to the Father of the Bicycle Industry and inventor of the Penny Farthing, James Starley, 1831-1881. Who was a major influence in bringing us the kind of cycle we ride today. The finished sculpture is located as a permanent public sculpture along the Sustrans Cycle network within the beautiful grounds of Ashton Court of Bristol. Long may it watch over the many cyclists who will pass it by, remembering one of our great British inventors.
The below gallery shows the finished sculpture for Sustrans cycle way in Ashton Court anlong with more Festival of Stone images from the Bristol waterside event and the 'Test day' from 2012 where the amazing UK stone carver Hayley Diamond and I teamed up for the 1 day event with the title Amour. The French team lead by Laurent brought the wine/dance and flair only they could and this made for a great start to the UK festival of Stone the following year.
