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610 869 4712

725 Street Road Cochranville, PA 19330 

Sailing Stones March 31 - October 31, 2015 – Kaori Homma's Meridian Stone Project 

Stonecarver Iain Cotton chiseled and painted the Meridian Stone, and is the first contributor to the project, with a photograph of the stone held in the carver's vice at his studio in Bath, United Kingdom.

I was thinking about scale and placement. Where is this stone’s prime meridian? What are the right coordinates for these zero’s? How big should their footprint be? I was thinking about ellipses within ellipses, and figure/ground relationships, and little upside down right angled triangles connecting time and space. I was thinking about the clockwise and counter clockwise orbits of 3 mm of sharp tungsten. The rhythm of hammer on chisel. Breathing and being precise. I was thinking about hours, minutes and seconds. Not thinking about the time but remembering to count it. Carving time from my other deadline.
PictureHomma Meridian on the roof of Street Road.
With the Meridian Stone Project, Japanese-born, London-based Kaori Homma investigates our understanding of place and history - both personal and social - and the instances in which the two intersect. This project is an extension of her Homma Meridian, an ongoing work which re-sites the Greenwich Prime Meridian in different locations around the globe, invoking the power-centered nature of demarcated boundaries and space.

Homma's Meridian Stone Project is an ongoing collaborative work: a stone taken from Street Road, and carved with the longitudinal coordinates 0º0’0’’ is mailed from artist to artist.

Homma sends the stone with these instructions to participants:
The Prime Meridian is set in Greenwich, in the United Kingdom, and indicates where the West begins and the East ends. You are given this transportable version. Place it at a meaningful point.
What are you thinking about?

Artists from far corners of the planet respond in both images and words, creating personal meditations on place. As of March 2015 participants include Haruka Komori, Natsumi Seo, and Syo Yoshihama in Japan, Nahyun Park in Korea, Pam Brabants in New Zealand, and Iain Cotton, Ken McLaughlin and Kaori Homma in the UK. These contributions are all featured in the Sailing Stones exhibition. The Meridian Stone will continue traveling and future contributions will be collected - check here and on our blog for updates.

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Visiting:
Autumn 2021: please check our website or social media before visiting as our hours are subject to change. Masks are required and we are observing limited numbers of people inside at one time. Please call 610-869-4712 or email to set up visits outside our regularly scheduled hours. 
We are currently seeking volunteers: email us if you are interested in volunteering for a few hours. 
 
HOURS
Street Road: Friday, Saturday and Sundays 11-3 pm and by appointment for the duration of Summer Library. Check back after November 13 for our winter hours. The library box outside is open 24/7. 
Little Free Library: Thursdays 12-3pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm and by appointment. 
Our Little Free Library's outdoor box is open 24/7 and regularly restocked.

DIRECTIONS
to Street Road here. 
to The Little Free Library here.

A word about 'here':
We acknowledge that we are on the ancestral lands of the Lenape, original people of the mid-Atlantic area, forced west by British and US governments. Most Delaware Indian tribe descendants are now located in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario. Lenni Lenapes in Pennsylvania are not officially recognized as tribes by the United States, though an estimated 5000 Lenape Nation descendants live in the Delaware River area. We pay respects to the Lenape people both past and present. Please consider the many legacies of violence, displacement and settlement that form part of our collective histories. While increased public recognition of these legacies and processes of redress such as Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission are positive steps, concrete focus on return of land and land rights remains a distant horizon.
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