The Elephant Bed – John Grade

Twin clusters of horn-like cones float down from the rafters of the gallery. One group dissolving into a mysterious pool, the other awaiting a ceremonial end in the sea….

This huge new sculpture created specifically for Fabrica by US artist John Grade is inspired by the life cycle of a micro-organism – the coccolithophore.

Coccolithophores are invisible algae that congregate in their billions just beneath the surface of the world’s oceans. When they die their protective outer casings drop to the seabed, where over time they form thick sediments on the seafloor. Around 80 – 110 million years ago they were responsible for forming the chalk which we now know as the South Downs.

It was the eminent Sussex geologist Gideon Mantell who originally identified the Elephant Bed in 1834. A thin strip of shale and chalky sands washed out from the Downs towards the end of the ice age. It is the bedrock that runs under Brighton & Hove from beyond Portslade in the west to Black Rock in the east. Estimated at 200 thousand years old, it is recent in geological terms.

Landscape is at the heart of John Grade’s work. Past projects have involved travelling across the vast wildernesses of North and South America and making degradable works in response to the environment. More recently he completed a creative residency in the Western boglands of County Mayo, Ireland, where he has historical family ties.

His work is characterised by the meticulous crafting of sculptural objects that are then left outside – either buried, left to rot or dissolve – to let nature take its course. His preoccupation with change and natural disintegration means his works are rarely finished, always remaining in transition and open to chance. Periodically items are brought back indoors to be exhibited, re-examined, or to be worked on again, then returned once more to the landscape as a final resting place.

Grade’s drawings and sculptures have been shown extensively in galleries, museums and outdoor locations across the USA. This is his first UK exhibition www.johngrade.com