As we recently shared, the One Island, Many Visions exhibition and symposium, hosted by the Portland Sculpture & Quarry Trust (PSQT) in Doreset, showcased many unique uses and interpretations of stone.

One such example comes from sculptor Mark Hudson, who produces most of his works intuitively with direct carving. Such an immediate and unplanned process requires a yielding stone that can still endure physical impacts. Portland Stone can be carved in any direction, and has qualities that the carver can respond to such as greater or lesser hardness or softness, small fossil remains, hollow parts, inherent fault lines, and pre-shaping by quarrying. 

Mark is a committed stone sculptor who is currently undertaking an MA by Research at Oxford Brookes in partnership with the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust. Mark Hudson has been based at the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust for the past four years on a residency where he has produced works such as Body Bound. He describes the piece as having “An energy and movement which reflects the writhing, externally expressed organs of a body, constrained by the large rope that binds it,” and offers a prime example of the intricate forms that Portland Stone allows with careful craftsmanship.