The Rule of Three

A visual exploration of the Mendip Hills through geology and family lineage. Retracing three generations, the work reflects on memory, inheritance, and identity, revealing how landscape shapes our understanding of self and time.

The Rule of Three

Human time is measured by the generations of family. Geological time is observed by the stone folds of strata. Water's time is shown through the depths it achieves in the earth. 

In the South West of England lies an ancient seabed, compressed over 300 million years to become the limestone Mendip Hills. This landscape, folded and cleft, holds memories; of creatures pressed into the earth until they became the ground itself, and of those who have wandered through leaving their mark.

Teachings of geology have connected the men in my family for three generations. Retracing my father and grandfather's footsteps and entering this land to be consciously entombed for a while, allows a clarity of reflection. A connection through stone becomes at once an exploration of this land’s internal landscape and my own, the calcium of my bones resonate with that of the rock. The formations of The Mendips are markers of knowledge and discovery, with its caves becoming a space of transition and revelation. 

I seek to visually articulate the interplay between landscape and memory, heritage and personal identity. The Rule of Three is not just a study of place, but an inquiry into how we come to understand ourselves through the histories we inherit, and the spaces we inhabit.