Lavit Gallery

ONGOING IN THE VAULTS

SOURCE
Kevin Sanderson Beecher & Jess Franklin
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group

Until 27 June 2026
Artist talk as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

A grain of sand begins as a fragment, separated from its source rock, it is carried by wind and water and shaped by many processes. Transforming, it moves through landscapes, gathering traces of its journey. In time, it settles. Grains settle. Layers form. What was once scattered is whole, held deep within the earth, and part of a larger, shifting landscape.

Source is an immersive sound installation, inspired by the research of former geologist Dr. Jess Franklin. Her PhD work investigated the provenance of ancient sandstones, unravelling the history of their individual sand grains, from weathering through to transport, deposition, and burial. Developed in collaboration with sound artist Kevin Sanderson Beecher, Source echoes the enormity of geological time. Using field recordings and sound manipulation, the soundscape serves as a sonic narrative that follows the long journey of sand grains through the sandstone’s life cycle.

Upon entering a darkened room, attendees are immersed in an evocative soundscape and presented with an illuminated sample of sandstone resting on a plinth. The grains of sand within the rock are over 200 million years old. They were once part of mountains that no longer exist. They traversed hundreds of kilometers before arriving at their final resting place. The simultaneously erosive and cumulative nature of this journey serves to reflect the shifting inner and outer landscapes of our own lives as humans. Through our own materiality, we weather through time, becoming contoured, curved, and cracked. Over the course of our lifetime, layers of individual and collective experience build up to form the narrative of our life’s journey.

Slow down. Listen. Return to source.