R.T. Livingston continues to use rock to create environmental works linking the past to the present.

Rock Wall is a site-specific installation. Two thousand bluestone rocks make up this 24' X 2' X 2' linear wall that carries with it a link to both architecture and drawing.

The wall, a line of stone, is as ancient an architectural structure as any found on earth. A sheet of reflective stainless steel, embedded below the top layer of stone, mirrors its surroundings. The viewer is subsumed into this ancient mix when peering downward into its mirrored center: an effect that gives the impression of piercing the earth's core as it opens to the awaiting sky on the other side of its vast expanse. This experience of seemingly looking through while physically looking up underscores the nature of our planet as it rotates in the vastness of the universe.

The wall, situated between two venerable trees, pays homage to 17th century landscape painting where the 'repoussoir' trees frame the central drama.

This piece challenges the viewer to reflect upon rock as a record of earth's violent metamorphosis as it shifted from one catastrophic age to the next. Rock is our history solidified. In short, it is a repository, a database, a record of life in the universe. From the beginning of recorded history, we have used rock as the matrix upon which to mark our place in time and space. We first communicated ideas with stone on stone. From the cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira to the skyscrapers towering above our cities, we continue to rely on the manipulation of massive rock.

Rock is the foundation upon which we live. It is the material from which we derive fuel to heat our homes, pave our streets, build our buildings, create boundaries and make art.

The component 2000 rocks that make up Rock Wall celebrate the millennium, reflecting back on, what in geological terms, is but a blink of the eye.

Rock Wall is a dividing line separating the past from the future, celebrating hope for this rock-solid, yet fragile, planet.