The art of rock stacking and its spiritual meaning

Art of rock stacking

Imagine the England of 1687

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a work by Isaac Newton for backing up his earlier theories on motion. Newton’s Laws of Motion and The Law of Universal Gravitation established fresh meanings for determinism. The updated materialism and causality reconfigured the old systems. Favored by Divine Inspiration, Newton acclaimed grateful: "Every natural law is The Law of God."

Undisturbed life moves on and we travel in time more than 300 years later. This is the 20^th Century England and in here we discover Andy Goldworthy a sculptor with passion for The Art of The Earth, more specifically the actual founder of ephemeral determinism. He forces flagstones to abide by Newtonian laws, re-discovering gravity in its divine and immutable essence. His works contradict the balance in the stable shape, in which we are instructed to perceive it, giving us a surprising idea of a different type of harmony for objects, as a more vivid inner joy, even if ephemeral. Andy creates on the idea of the pebble game from childhood, managing their inner balance, increasing their volume and adapting their shape, then placing them in an apparent stack against gravity, in reality using it and emphasising it. With him, it appears an entire generation of stone stackers working with elementary materials, organized by principles invented by nature and over which write the magic of their inspiration.

Following his ideas across the ocean, Canadian Michael Grab fleds to Colorado, where he invents new positions for Stones from 16 countries and promotes worldwide our Barsei, by stacking with grace the flagstones from the river near Zarnesti.

The empirical coming from Barsa River

He works and displays his works of art worldwide, deliver conferences and receives prizes and most of all, defines gravity as the original adhesive that maintains these stones attached, a necessary theory that attempts to formalize a bit the unofficial play with stones. Master of meditation, he seeks the inner silence from Yoga and perceives the artistic act as a connection with nature in a shape of spiritual development.

Voice of stone from Zarnesti

We're crossing another ocean to meet Kokei Mikuni, the Japanese version of the "mind-blowing" lover who dedicated his childhood to Gravity's rebellion in the balance of nature. Due to Japanese typical patience and concentration, he masters this revolt, laying stones in a unique combination of volumes and ideas and extracting archaic essences from ancient Japanese art. His superior expertise and skillset also received a pragmatic recognition from Sony, in the shape of an advertising contract.

Kokei Mikuni – The balance of nature

We come back to Europe to find Pontus Jansson, a Swedish with a rather Mediterranean attitude, an aficionado of sacred arrangements, with direct reference to the primary silence of stone moai from Easter Island.

Zen Family

Master of the counterbalance and pendulum stuck in intricate compositions, Pontus casts a spell over natural stone shapes in a surreal and magical way that offers meaningful resources for the most inventive viewers.

Pontus – Bridge to Valhalla

By becoming an art, the ability to place stones in a balance sustained only by the laws of gravity, in absence of glue, wiring or other means of fixation, delivers some ephemeral art works in the market for original sculpture, able to remain as legacy for future generations only by means of photography. This will take place by returning to the nature, the elements which she gracefully presented to us in her most subtle forms.

Wake up, Mr. Newton! Your Apple has became obsolete. It's time to change it!

If we compare these stories to the reality of today and unable to keep up to the higher balance standards of Mother Nature, we have to make room for some kind of domestic balance, useful for offseting the decorative stones in our gardens. Visit PIATRONLINE’s website for discover the gift of nature for us!