NEW PLYMOUTH ROCKS
2018

Concrete sculpture, app for mobile phones

Sculpture: approximately 80 x 200 x 150 cm

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Installation view The Atlantic Project, Plymouth, UK

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The Plymouth Rock is a geological object that entered our cultural history when in 1741, it was claimed to have been the first thing the Pilgrim Fathers set foot on when they landed in Massachusetts in 1620.

Since the 18th Century it has been treated as an artefact that can be moved and manipulated according to cultural and political situations at the time: relocated several times within the town of Plymouth; it was dropped and broken numerous times during transportation; pieces were chipped off as souvenirs; the year of the Pilgrims’ arrival was inscribed on it; and it's larger parts were eventually patched together with concrete to become one – now smaller– rock again. This conglomerate is the famous monument you can visit today.

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NEW PLYMOUTH ROCKS highlights the sculptural transformations that the Plymouth Rock has undergone over time and plays with the possibility of further destruction! Based on a 3D scan of the famous rock a life-size concrete rock has been created. This low-polygon version is placed in the city centre of Plymouth, UK –the town from where the Mayflower ship embarked in 1620.

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Accompanying the concrete sculpture is an app, which lets you make all sorts of imaginable manipulations of the Plymouth Rock. Roll it with a tap; chip off bits; sculpt and break the monument! Users are invited to share their uniquely manipulated Plymouth Rock through the app, and have their version become the basis for a forthcoming concrete sculpture: a NEW PLYMOUTH ROCK!