Chris Booth

Earth to Sky, 2020
Paradise stone and river stones
1500mm
Price on request

With a carefully composed grid of sandstone and river stones, Earth to Sky is a wonderful example of a strata sculpture built by internationally renowned artist Chris Booth.

Usually creating sculpture on a much larger scale, it is a rare delight to view Booth’s work at this intimate size. Standing one metre high and weighing 100kg, Earth to Sky is one of only two small scale slab and boulder sculptures outside of Booth’s personal collection. It sits in a long line of slab and boulder sculptures that have been created on various sites - firstly with the majestic 20 tonne Kaipara Strata that was created for Gibbs Farm in 1992, and later with large scale works Earth Sky Strata (Whangaparaoa, 1994), Schist Strata (Arrowtown, 1999), Wairau Strata (Marlborough, 2000) and Wairau Sky Stone Strata (London, 2000).

Booth describes Earth to Sky as “a poem in stone - playful, and zen-like” which was first carefully balanced then later fixed with bolts. Booth is constantly inspired by his natural surroundings, and with the strata sculptures there is a direct reference to the layers of earth beneath our feet and filtered light in the atmosphere around us. Moving around the sculpture, the viewer sees this concept gracefully evoked in the layered stones, which contain multiple tilts and slants. Along with a sense of ‘earthiness’, there are subtle references to the built environment, from the remnants of an ancient shrine to the markings of a minimalist architectural grid.