The work functions as a kind of visual reliquary, a tiled composition of represented landscapes where foliage, mountains, and geological strata evoke the textures of ancient relief sculpture. At its centre is the head of Artemis, a stone fragment dredged from the waters near Pozzuoli, Naples. Estimated to be around two thousand years old, the sculpture was brought to Sheffield and donated by Reverend Greville John Chester in 1875. As a collected object, it speaks to the enduring power of human creativity, but also points to histories of extraction, displacement, and the often-destructive impulses behind collection and acquisition.
