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Walkers around Keele University grounds will encounter a huge rock hanging over Pool Three in Keele Woods. Keele are hosting local artist David Bethell’s latest sculpture, called The Weight of Things, during the winter months.

David Bethell conceived of the project during the first lockdown. He says “2020 has been very different. There have been lots of challenges and we have had to find new ways to adapt, new ways to explore, new ways to work. There has felt a weight of things, a sense of uncertainty and unknowing. More than ever there is a feeling, a moment, and when that’s past, we are waiting for the next moment to happen. It’s this feeling that triggered my proposal for this site-specific sculpture.
I wanted the rock to look as if it has come from a mountain, the gritstone of the Roaches, which is one of my favourite places. I wanted to create the illusion of it hovering above the lake, capturing a moment that is in a state of flux, unknowing and uncertain, both poetic and jarring. The work pays homage to Rene Magritte’s painting ‘Clear Ideas’ painted in 1958."

David Bethell is a carpenter and champion fell-runner who grew up in Ipstones and lives in Stoke on Trent. He graduated from St Martins College, London with a Fine Art MA in 2017. He answered a call-out from local company Urban Wilderness who were looking for personal responses to lockdown. This project has been funded by Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund.

   

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