Distentio, Wells Art Contemporary 2026

Site Specific Installation, Wells Cathedral, Somerset

Distentio is Augustine’s word for the soul stretched across time, pulled between memory, expectation and the present moment.

Distentio was made for the Chapter House staircase at Wells Cathedral, for Wells Art Contemporary 2026. It was chosen from thousands of entries, and it was a huge honour and a real privilege to make work for such an extraordinary, peaceful and meditative space.

Seventy-two bronze feathers were scattered up steps worn smooth by centuries of footsteps, and I spent days placing each one, following the grooves of the steps and the markings of the stones, and talking with people as they passed by.

The stones are memory. They’re cast from Carboniferous killas pebbles on the Cornish coast, 300 million years old, gathered and then returned, because they were never mine to keep. What remains is the shape of a thing once the thing itself has gone.

The steps are expectation, worn smooth by centuries of people climbing toward something.

The feathers are the present moment, caught mid-fall and never landing. Each is sculpted by hand and cast in bronze by the lost wax process, so no two are alike.
Some rest in hollows worn into the stones beneath them, the way footsteps wear the steps. Something light, repeated for long enough, wears down something hard.

Scattering them is part of the piece. Feathers don’t stay where they fall. They’re carried on, and each one that finds a home stretches Distentio a little further.

Details
Single bronze feathers, numbered from an edition of 72 · bronze feathers on cast stone, numbered from an edition of 48 · each piece unique · suitable for indoors or out

A selection to be sold on my website with 50% of profits going to Macmillan Cancer Support (going live 24th November)

Pieces can also be found at The Art Buyer and Cornwall Contemporary.