'Matrix Revealed'
To help visitors understand the geological processes which shaped the Breckland landscape, they can view a column at High Lodge Forest Centre, which is a representation of the deposits to a depth of 13 metres. There is an interpretation board to explain the artist's impression of the geological layers.
In 2004, the Forestry Commission received funding from the Arts Council England, Forest Heath District Council and the 'Arts for All' programme of Suffolk County Council, through the Rural Arts Lottery Programme, for an innovative arts project at High Lodge. The sculptor, Julienne Dolphin Wilding, was chosen to carry out the project and, after a series of public consultation days with adults and children, she chose a geological theme.
The column was constructed around a ten tonne block of concrete and a steel inner tube ten millimetres thick and twelve metres high welded onto a base plate. Twenty-four 'mill stone rings' were then mounted onto the tube and bedded in with mortar joints. Using aggregate materials provided by May Gurney and Frimstone Ltd, Julienne built up a series of layers to create an artistic impression of the geological strata.
