Locked Down World

2021, Bath Stone from Corsham

H 390mm x W 370mm x D 100mm

This stone I bought from a builder’s yard in Corsham, above the quarry.


I started this carving in the spring 2020 and wanted to carve something beautiful, so started to carve a Calla lily. After a while with the first lockdown raging around me, I turned the stone over and started to carve a corona virus representation instead.

The centre of the virus became a prison cell and inside that we can see the Earth.

For health reasons I couldn’t work so I spent the next year at home on my own, pretty much imprisoned and not doing very much. In the early spring of 2021 after I had had the first jab and it was getting more pleasant to work outside, I finally finished the sculpture.
I think it should be fixed on a wall, maybe in a public space, as a visible reminder for us all not to take life and health for granted.