What makes a landscape; geological processes or human actions? Millions of years of tectonic uplift, erosion and sedimentation balanced against generations of human exploration, settlement and innovation. The spectacular Mendip Hills landscape illustrates just how deeply geology and humanity are entwined. The underlying rocks determine where water flows, what minerals form, and where plants grow. In turn, humans alter the landscape through mining, quarrying, farming, and building.

Some Mendip cave systems contain evidence of human activity dating back over 10,000 years. Notably, Aveline’s Hole is the largest known Early Mesolithic cemetery in Britain. Hundreds of Bronze Age barrows punctuate the skyline and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be found on the distinctive limestone ridge. Rare calcareous grasslands – an internationally important habitat established by ancient woodland clearance – flourish on the southern slopes. There is even evidence of lead mining in the area from the late Iron Age and Roman times; an activity that has changed the landscape via the creation of local “gruffy” ground.

Menhir is a visual exploration of a continually evolving landscape; an aesthetic discovery of the special qualities and unique features of one of the UK’s ‘National Landscapes’. It blends the cultural and natural histories of the region by printing photographs onto local rock specimens and then embedding them in the environment. Each image is stratified and transformed via a combination of time and physical processes, much like the land itself. Furthermore, the photographs were projected onto the natural rock faces around Cheddar Gorge; a final manifestation of the work that encompasses layer upon layer of geological time and cultural history.

The project was commissioned by the Mendip Hills National Landscape (formerly the Mendip Hills AONB) through Seed Sedgemoor and the Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme. It was delivered in partnership with Somerset Film, The Mendip Society, Somerset Earth Science Centre, and Windrose Rural Media Trust.

Find out more about the ‘Moments on Mendip’ project on the Mendip Hills National Landscape and Seed Sedgemoor websites.