A year later or so i was cycling through Shoreditch Park when i came across another granite boulder clearly from the same location as the origins of the boulder in Hackney Marshes. It struck me as being very odd regardless of the fact this area is a magnet to artists and creative types. Yes i see the art in the piece but i felt that this was no art piece. I knew from its position in the park that it was sacredly aligned with a leyline / energy vortex and i still feel that today.
In the following pictures of the boulder which I've recently come to learn is called Boulder 1. Its in Shoreditch Park, Hackney (Ancient Hackney extended much further than it does today as its been split into different self governing councils)...
I found an article on the origins / purpose of the boulders but don't believe it for a second...I believe its possible the artist has no idea on the real reason for the placing them precisely in those locations...Though i did notice one of their team said 'It felt like we were recreating Stonehenge'
To boulderly go... in the name of art
In fact, the two 12ft high granite boulders were brought from Cornwall to become public art in east London. Each weighing up to 85 tonnes, they are now in Shoreditch Park and Mabley Green, Homerton. They form an installation called Boulder and are part of the cultural regeneration of the area. Visitors, who are normally told not to touch sculptures, will be encouraged to clamber all over artist John Frankland's creations. Mile End Climbing Wall is holding taster sessions for would-be " boulderers" as part of the Shoreditch Festival, which runs until Sunday with the twin themes of sport and art. Frankland, 47, who lives in east London, said the idea came to him while on a pebble beach during a holiday in Cornwall. "I just started looking at them as amazing objects and interesting things in themselves," he said. "But if you change the context of where they are found, you change the meaning. Each boulder is different in its new home - and acts like a magnet. People walk up to them and ask questions. It's absolutely fantastic."The installation has been funded with £100,000 from Deutsche Bank plus contributions from Hackney council and the Shoreditch Trust. Shoreditch Park, which is undergoing a £1 million transformation to include new play areas, paths and furniture-is filled with trees. Mabley Green, by contrast, is a field between a housing estate and the A12. Micheal Pyner, chief executive of the trust, said: "We try to see regeneration in terms of people as well as buildings. If this were Holland Park, not Shoreditch Park, no one would question why there was installation art. There's an issue for us of access to arts and audience development for arts in the broadest sense."
The boulders were donated by Carnsew quarry near Falmouth. The stones are so heavy contractor Fitzpatrick purpose-built steel frames to hold each one on HGVs. They needed a police escort. Project manager Mark Mascar said: "Moving these boulders was a very delicate task. It felt like we were recreating Stonehenge."
GOT THIS FROM A CLIMBING WEBSITE;
Shoreditch Park Boulder
Greater London, ENGLAND Climbs 14 – Rocktype Granite – Altitude 17m a.s.l – Faces all
Crag features
Two Hackney green spaces are now permanent homes to two massive pieces of solid granite, each weighing up to 100 tonnes and measuring over four metres high. Boulder 1 (Shoreditch Park) and Boulder 2 (Mabley Green) together form Boulder, an ambitious public realm sculpture project by John Frankland. The launch of this work marks the completion of the second phase of the regeneration of Shoreditch Park and will be a focal point for this year's Shoreditch Festival. In addition to their presence in the Hackney urban landscape as subtle yet iconic landmark works, Frankland intends that people should engage with the boulders in a direct and physical way through rock climbing, or "bouldering". A keen and experienced climber himself, Frankland considers physical contact with the rock as a way of energising or activating the work, as well as a way of playfully debunking the notion of those sculptures in park settings, which are often fenced off or prominently labeled as "not to be touched".
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