Give and Take – Peter Randall-Page (2005)

Give and Take’ is carved from a 36-tonne naturally eroded glacial boulder over 3m in height. The boulder, rounded like a giant pebble by glaciation, was unearthed near Fort William in Scotland. The artist acquired it in 1998 and transported the monumental stone to his studio in Devon.

Accepting the overall shape of the rock as a given, Peter Randall-Page mapped its entire surface with an unbroken matrix of 630 hexagons and 12 pentagons. This pattern can be seen in the natural world in cellular, molecular and atomic structures.

The surface pattern follows the geodesic geometry found in molecular structure and consists of 630 hexagons and 12 pentagons carved into the surface of a 40 tonne glacial boulder from Fort William in Scotland. Randall-Page said: “this is the culmination of twenty five years studying organic form and explores the relationship between geometry and biology”.