Avebury: Summer 2025. Standing Stone

The summer of 2025 is very dry, with higher than average temperatures and little or no rain. The grass is burned off by the sun, and the lichen and moss that cover the standing stones is dry.

In it’s original form the stones and stone circles would probably be standing on the white chalk soil, but since the renovation of the circle in the 1930’s many were placed in concrete, and the short local grass covers the twentieth century’s intervention on the site.

Standing Stones: Avebury Henge & Avenue

The Neolithic Standing Stones have been at Avebury for 5,000 years, and were formed around 30 million years ago. Each stone hosts a unique microcosm and ecosystem of lichen and moss.

As an artist, I am fascinated by the resilience, endurance, and the enigma of each stone within the stone circle’s architecture. My practice explores how technology and art are entwined.

The Standing Stones Circle exhibit sustainable technology that continues to track the seasons, lunar and solar calendars, and functions as a shared calendar for humans. The images explore the materiality and texture of the stones and their juxtaposition to a changing landscape, contemporary grids, and the pixelation of vernacular screen-based culture.

This emerging body of work is primarily site based and will continue to evolve over time.

Drawings and Experiments

Some of the images have a life of their own and to morph into something else.

The summer storms had passed over, as I entered Avebury Avenue. Two artists were drawing stones.

I drew this one in pen and ink. In the background are the two tumuli.

Experiments

Stan Henchen Hring

What was Avebury called?

I researched Olde English and surmised that they were probably named, “ Stan Henchen Hring” (Stone Standing/Hanging Ring/Circle.”)

Each of the words were used in 6th to 9th Century CE but there is no record of this phrase although it is logical.

I climbed the hill from the end of the Avenue to sit beside the two tumuli, one was in the open air, the other covered by a small copse of trees.

Silbury Hill was not visible from this vantage point, hidden beneath a hill line in the far distance,

The summer weather was changeable and started to hail.

Turing Patterns

There is a small herd of Friesian cattle grazing on the Avebury Avenue.

The Friesian cow pattern is denoted as a Turing Pattern, which Alan Turing hypothesized in his 1952 paper, “ The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.”