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.