Abseilers and Scaffolding - Biome 2000 by Anthony Eyton. Picture courtesy The Eden Project
Exhibition: Evolution of a Cornish Clay Pit, The Eden Project, Cornwall, April 10 - June 30 2009
Visitors to Cornwall's Eden Project will get to see its famous geodesic domes in a whole new light with the unveiling of a new exhibition charting the attraction’s construction and evolution.
Award-winning artist Anthony Eyton has been in residence at the conservation project for the past ten years, documenting its growth with his characteristic large-scale pieces. The 30 works on show range from the empty Cornish clay pit of the exhibition's title to contemporary renderings of the record-breakingly huge greenhouses that now fill it.
Tim Smit, The Eden Project's Chief Executive, said: "In the years he has been recording our progress I've noticed something remarkable about Tony's work. The construction pictures for instance, when just completed, were impressive, but as time passed and the construction finished you started to notice that his paintings had a life and movement which truly captured our experience of the frenzied building process far better than any photograph ever could."
Anthony Eyton at work. Picture courtesy The Eden Project
Eyton first caught the Eden Project's eye after they spotted his paintings recording the construction of the Tate Modern. He started his work in Cornwall by painting a solitary olive tree from a nursery, then began to spend time on the construction site, getting to know the builders over the years as he created his vibrant art.
"In my ten years working as Artist in Residence, I really feel like part of the Eden team and am proud to have such a wonderful environment as my subject," he said. "It is poetic that a china clay pit, so Cornish in essence, has been given another life. It is a constant source of inspiration for me and continues to get better and better.”
For more information visit The Eden Project
