Object Annex :: Stonefridge, a Fridgehenge
The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on the open downland of Salisbury Plain two miles (three kilometres) west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in Southern England. It is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modelled over a period of more than 1400 years beginning about 2900 BCE. Not only has it fascinated and frightened people for centuries, but it has also, inevitably, spawned imitation.
There have been henges constructed from tanks, car bodies, concrete, plaster, foam, wood and fridges. We like the ones made of fridges best.
The earliest recorded Fridgehenge occurred in Hamilton NZ in 1994. Built by Sam Burke, Adrian McGovern and Graeme Cairns Monday for a summer solstice festival. Forty-one fridges were used in the construction, each corresponding to one of the major Sarsen stones of the original. An avenue was mown in the grass pointing towards the midsummer sunrise, and two fridges corresponding to the Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone were positioned along it. Apparently their affiliations to the McGillicuddy Serious Party and Claudelands Visionary Society are incidental.
Reported in a San Francisco newspaper >>
This is their tale >>
Of course, every idea of genius has its imitators. There are later, unfortunately unsubstantiated, rumours of another NZ fridgehenge on a hill overlooking Carteton. And several US acolytes. The most impressive seems to be by Adam Horowitz whose ‘Stonefridge’ near Santa Fe, New Mexico was never completed. Horowitz calls it "a post-modern, post-apocalyptic temple to waste and consumerism," however its sad current dilapidation is a very effective tribute to the stymieing power of local government.
Nicole Jones, a resident of Austin Texas has deftly documented the monument’s corrosion. Her photographs illustrate this post and her whole set can be found here >>
Horowitz’s Stonefridge was included in a documentary by Scott Herriott about 17 places in America that are truly one-of-a-kind... This Exit Only >>
You can see it from Space via Google (click on the thumbnail) >>
And a bunch of photographs by Mark and Shiree >>
Uncanny Valley Travel Guide to the Unsual report >>
A Burning Man Festival Fridgehenge in 2005 with each fridge containing an interactive art work. The Machine / daytime art >>
STONEHENGE: CLONES AND METAPHORMS explores other variants includes Cadillac Range >>
And the dreaded curse of Stonehenge! The curse of Stonehenge will remain until it is handed back to the druids The Guardian 2006/01/27 >>
There have been henges constructed from tanks, car bodies, concrete, plaster, foam, wood and fridges. We like the ones made of fridges best.
The earliest recorded Fridgehenge occurred in Hamilton NZ in 1994. Built by Sam Burke, Adrian McGovern and Graeme Cairns Monday for a summer solstice festival. Forty-one fridges were used in the construction, each corresponding to one of the major Sarsen stones of the original. An avenue was mown in the grass pointing towards the midsummer sunrise, and two fridges corresponding to the Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone were positioned along it. Apparently their affiliations to the McGillicuddy Serious Party and Claudelands Visionary Society are incidental.
Reported in a San Francisco newspaper >>
This is their tale >>
Of course, every idea of genius has its imitators. There are later, unfortunately unsubstantiated, rumours of another NZ fridgehenge on a hill overlooking Carteton. And several US acolytes. The most impressive seems to be by Adam Horowitz whose ‘Stonefridge’ near Santa Fe, New Mexico was never completed. Horowitz calls it "a post-modern, post-apocalyptic temple to waste and consumerism," however its sad current dilapidation is a very effective tribute to the stymieing power of local government.
Nicole Jones, a resident of Austin Texas has deftly documented the monument’s corrosion. Her photographs illustrate this post and her whole set can be found here >>
Horowitz’s Stonefridge was included in a documentary by Scott Herriott about 17 places in America that are truly one-of-a-kind... This Exit Only >>
You can see it from Space via Google (click on the thumbnail) >>
And a bunch of photographs by Mark and Shiree >>
Uncanny Valley Travel Guide to the Unsual report >>
A Burning Man Festival Fridgehenge in 2005 with each fridge containing an interactive art work. The Machine / daytime art >>
STONEHENGE: CLONES AND METAPHORMS explores other variants includes Cadillac Range >>
And the dreaded curse of Stonehenge! The curse of Stonehenge will remain until it is handed back to the druids The Guardian 2006/01/27 >>
posted by Director at 10:41 pm
2 Comments:
Stonehenge is a very debated landmark here in the U.K. Many people argue over it's purpose. Some say it was used as a shrine/temple by druids and sits perfectly on a positive leyline and that the druids conversed with the aliens who created life on this planet and who were usually busy mowing the fields opposite into unusual patterns and formations and blah blah blah.
Fortunately, we who are local(ish) to the area know the truth about stonehenge!
It's actually the worlds oldest shopping mall...or it would've been!
It turns out that the local council back then were funding the project to try to attract more people into the local area, with the prospects of employment. Initially builders, then staff for the boutiques who had also signed up for the centre and finally shoppers!
The area was actually inhabited by aliens and druids at the time, and a bunch of wierdo hippy wizards and their extra-terrestrial/ extra-dimensional friends were hardly able to create any viable economic growth in the area. Hence the decision to build the stonehenge shopping mall.
Unfortunately, the architect chosen for the job was a very fussy, arty farty type who caused the project to go massively over-budget by insisting that the builders use rather large, expensive, unwieldy lumps of stone, found only in the Welsh valleys.
Unfortunately the wheel hadn't been invented yet, so the afore mentioned stones had to be rolled from Wales on logs, which again brought up labour costs. It took weeks if not months to drag just one of those stones to the site.
Thanks to these factors, the funds gradually dried up and the boutiques who signed up originally pulled out.
All that stands today is what would've been the inner circle of the mall, the hub, the central point.
The initial plan was for a premises much, much larger!
The architect was probably sacrificed to some pagan god or other or at least given a seever kicking!
And the aliens, who had advised against the building of the mall in the first place left earth to go and find some intelligent life forms to talk to, though they still return occasionally to weave unusual patterns into fields of crops.
So there you have it...The truth about Stonehenge!
p.s. Sorry about the typo in the above comment.
*Seever = severe
p.p.s. sorry about any other typos I didn't spot!
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