And Everything And Nothing Has Changed

An Eight-month public arts and heritage project

by Robin James Sullivan
China Clay Country, Cornwall · 2021

“I wanted to build a monument to community — a symbol of what we can create together, in a landscape that has been continuously shaped, scarred, and softened by human hands.”
— Robin James Sullivan

Partners and Support

Austell Projects, Creative Civic Change, Arts Council England, Royal Cornwall Museum, Wheal Martyn Museum, Cornwall College, Cultivator Cornwall, EcoBos, Imerys, White Gold Festival & Andrew.

Set across 70km of Cornwall’s China Clay Country, And Everything And Nothing Has Changed was a five-month public art programme exploring how landscapes remember — and how we might remember with them. Through sculpture, performance, fieldwork and conversation, the project unearthed the visible and invisible transformations of this terrain — its geology, industry, ecology, communities and futures.

At the centre of the project stood a newly-constructed, 2m-tall ceramic menhir — a monolithic sculpture co-designed and co-built with over 450 local participants. Fired in a 4.5m-high petal kiln in a public event below the iconic Sky Tip, this contemporary standing stone was both ritual and record, memorial and monument.

It now resides permanently in the local area, gifted to the community that created it.

The Landscape as Archive

For every 1kg of China Clay extracted here, 9kg of waste earth is displaced. Over 1.8 billion tons of ground has been moved across Cornwall — reconfiguring not just hills and valleys, but also the cultural memory embedded in them.

248 prehistoric sites — settlements, standing stones, sacred places — are thought to have been destroyed by this industry. Robin’s project began as a way to respond to that loss, asking:

What happens when we remake a monument in a changed landscape? Can a relocated object take on new meaning? What voids do these movements leave behind?

The ceramic menhir, built from decomposed granite and fired to stone, became a reimagining — a new marker in a post-industrial terrain that speaks to the past while reaching into the future.

An Other Art Space at the Sky Tip

A temporary art site — AnOtherArtSpace — was constructed at the foot of the Sky Tip, transforming a once-extractive location into a space of making, gathering and dialogue. Over several weeks it hosted open workshops in:

Clay processing and coil-building
Willow sculpture and light installation
Glazing and kiln operation
Performance and improvisation

Impact

450+ local participants engaged through hands-on events
17 artists and experts contributed
10,000+ reached across in-person, digital and print
Community-built sculpture now installed permanently
New monthly event legacy: Night of the Nine Stones
Documentary screening and online access for long-term learning

“I didn’t think art could be like this.”
“It’s so incredible to be part of something truly collaborative.”
“You allowed others in, and I — with all my restrictions — was able to be living life to its full again.”

Themes and Practice

Robin James Sullivan’s work explores the intersections of people, place and time. Drawing from queer performance, archaeology, and environmental history, his projects are rooted in slow research and collective action. He sees the landscape as both archive and actor — a place shaped by deep time, industrial rhythms, and personal memory.

“This project is about the land that made us, the hands that shaped it, and the futures we might build together.”

Project Documentary

Programme

Built Together

This project was never just about making a sculpture — it was about making space. Across dozens of events, over 450 people came together to walk, think, talk, dig, shape and celebrate. These moments — large and small — formed the heart of And Everything And Nothing Has Changed. Below is a glimpse into what we made together.

Kiln Building Residency

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | April–May 2021

A 10-day workshop with Art & Design students from Cornwall College, building a bespoke 4.5m-high wood-fired kiln from scratch. Guided by Robin and local kiln experts, students learned traditional building techniques while shaping the project’s central structure — a kiln designed to open like a flower and fire a monumental ceramic sculpture.

Pit to Port Tour

📍 Wheal Martyn to Par Docks | May 2021

A rare, behind-the-scenes field trip tracing the industrial journey of china clay from pit to port. Led by Wheal Martyn staff and Robin, participants travelled in 4x4s through active and post-industrial landscapes, gaining insight into a process that has shaped lives, economies and ecologies for centuries.

Test Firings #1–#3

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | May–July 2021

Three epic 72-hour kiln firings, each operated in shifts by local artists, students and volunteers. These overnight events blended hard graft with camaraderie — chopping wood, stoking flames, brewing endless tea. Each firing was a learning curve and community ritual, building toward the final sculpture firing.

How To Build a Stone Circle.

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | May 2021

A two-day drop-in session where participants built 2.5m-high standing stones from willow and tissue paper, reimagining the lost Nine Stones Circle engulfed by the china clay industry. The sculpture later became the setting for a night of performance and celebration.

Night of the Nine Stones

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | May 2021

An evening of poetry, improv and performance held within the illuminated willow stone circle. Featuring the Creative Civic Change Group, this joyful gathering marked one of the first post-lockdown events in the area — and inspired the launch of an ongoing monthly series.

Field Trip with Peter Herring

📍 Blackpool Pit + Surroundings | May 2021

A public landscape walk led by archaeologist Peter Herring, exploring 6,000 years of land use in the Clay Country. Discussions spanned prehistoric settlement, industrial scars and the concept of the "taskscape" — how human culture and landscape continuously shape one another.

(Filmed and developed into a captioned documentary for long-term access.)

Public Ceramic Workshops

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | June–July 2021

Open studio sessions where members of the public were invited to help build the final standing stone sculpture. Participants processed clay, learned coiling and joining techniques, and quite literally left their mark on the monument.

SX0753 Botany Walk

📍 Par Harbour | July 2021

A walking conversation exploring the 628 non-native plant species introduced to the area through clay trade routes. Led by Robin and local botanists, the walk examined how global industry quietly shaped local ecologies — often in surprising ways.

Live Art Firing & Final Event

📍 Temporary Art Space, West Carclaze | August 2021

The culminating event: a live three-day firing of the standing stone sculpture in the 4.5m kiln. On the final evening, the kiln opened ceremoniously in front of a live audience, revealing the 1300-degree ceramic menhir. Fire, music and celebration marked the end of the programme — and the beginning of the stone’s new life in the community.

Sculpture Unveiling & Installation

📍 Local Community Site | Summer 2021

The final sculpture — built by many hands — was installed as a permanent artwork in the local area. It now stands as a marker of collective memory, made from the land itself, shaped by stories, labour and love.

A special thanks

Mum & Dad, Julian, Xina, Dan, Tom, Alice, Jade, Tom, Layan, Gemma, Zenna, Bobi, Rosanna, Alex, and Jenny.

and to the 450 other beautiful people who made this possible.

In loving memory of Bill Jones x

ROBIN JAMES SULLIVAN