Matthew Simmonds is a stone carver that recreates historical architecture out of blocks of marble. He carves the interiors of churches and other classical architectural spaces within marble blocks, and by leaving part of the rock untouched, he creates a contrast between natural roughness and irregularity and man-made smoothness and proportion.
The sculptures are beautiful, and somehow make me think of the
Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta, where, around 3000BC, a temple was recreated underground by carving through stone. In that amazing site, the builders imitated the temples that were built outside using huge slabs of rock by carving the shapes and ornamentations in the earth underground.
As is stated on his website: "Simmonds makes a play of architecture and ornamentation on a small
scale, but the spaces created give the same feeling as in the buildings
themselves; a place to rest, a place to travel with the eye and maybe
find a moment of tranquillity. The marble is opened up, and inside is a
space within a building that only exists in the viewer's mind. What you
sense is the significance of space".
Take a look for yourself...
http://www.mattsimmonds.com/
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| Fragment II, 2006 | | | |
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| Romanesque Stone, 2003 |
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| Tivoli, 2007 |
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| Rotunda, 2007 |
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| Gothic Stone, 2003 |
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| Lebanon, 2001 |
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