NEWS RELEASE
Issued by the Countryside Agency's Landscape, Access and Recreation division

Draft 21 June
Friday 23 June 2006

Surrey ...   more »

There have been responses by phone and email, mainly positive. Some emails to me are below. Complaints have been made ...   more »

Quarry:2 event took place this weekend, there is a striking mark on the cliff face as a result of the activity that is highly visible from the A25, Reigate>Dorking train and planes in and out of Gatwick, as well as the surrounding area. The coloured sheep will remain at the site this week and will graze beneath Box Hill next week.

A few pictures are pasted below of core moments in the process of the colouring event, though some of the most significant moments are with the interaction between participants. The people involved particularly The Farmer, the Surrey Fire and Rescue Search and Rescue Team, and all the other volunteers were amazing to work with and formed a better team than it is possible to plan. 

We had around 200 visitors to the site and many viewing progress from the road and the medieval fair nearby, people were continueing to visit and comment when I left yesterday early evening. Most people were very enthusiastic with only a few showing concern, I directed them to the info. room at the entrance to the quarry to find out more about the background to the work and methodology used and am awaiting a response.

Conversation took place in a very organic manner, with people talking to each other throughout the event and several group chats that were unplanned. There has been interest among participants to meet and have a more structured discussion about the site and the work in the future, perhaps at an exhibition of the project documentation.





First we coloured blue sheep, then red, then yellow. They looked like other worldly ethereal creatures standing on top of the hill in the sunset literally glowing pure colour! The next day they were slightly mottled with go faster stripes having been rained on and in contact with other coloured sheep.

The process of colouring them was with spray paint used for wool marking, I tagged a few of them Lee's as a play on markage, control and ownership: this project has utilised ideas as well as physical contributions from between 10 and 20 people.




The firemen used the project as a training exercise, it was difficult for them in blazing hot sunshine, with hot air rising up the hill lifting the powder up rather than allowing it to drop down on the chalk, and the cliff face was loose making it a real stafety hazard as chalk fell on thier heads and from under their feet. We didn't manage to colour the whole cliff but we gave it a good shot and noone got hurt.



The exhausted firemen dropped some paint over the edge. We ended the work on the cliff face when they were no longer able to lift each other back over the top.

I hope that people will use this space to add their own comment, image, memory about the event and inform of any developments. Groups will be visiting this week and the work is already changing... sheep colours are merging and the colour on the chalk will move and change with the elements.

The following is a reaction to needing to communicate information about a current project quickly and without a distance: see ...   more »