The Erratics

Permanent Public Work for Cambridge University, 2019

Erratic #1

‘Erratic #1’ is the first of series of boulders from around the planet that will be transported to Cambridge, UK and balanced on buildings across the ‘New Museum Site’ of Cambridge University. ‘The Erratics’ is a complex permanent public artwork that will unfold slowly over the next 7 years.

 

An ‘Erratic’ is a term from geology describing a boulder or stone that has been transported into a geography where it does not actually belong. Most often created through the action of glaciers, ‘Erratics’ often sit precariously on the landscape – having been transported hundreds or thousands of miles and then slowly lowered by the receding glacier into an alien context.

The permanent artwork: ‘The Erratics’ will create a series of artificial erratics at the heart of Cambridge, UK. Erratic #1 was found in ‘Wadi Rum’ in the kingdom of Jordan and was installed in Bene’t Yard (off Bene’t St) in Cambridge in 2019. A stainless-steel plaque, etched with a map and text reveals the long, slow journey that the rock made from the Jordanian desert to the wind and the rain of Cambridge.

 

Drawings from the journey to ‘Wadim Rum’, Jordan

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