The Mystery Of The Big Stone Heads Solved
I Posted earlier about the mysterious appearance of close to 20 heads carved from stone in northern England. Well, it turns out that speculation that the heads were being left about as a publicity stunt has been confirmed. The rock noggins are the work of one Billy Johnson, an artist. His website is here. The latest wire story says this:
The sculptures, which all have a carved symbol which apparently spells "paradox" and a riddle, have been left outside homes and businesses across the northern county of Yorkshire over the last few weeks.
The story was picked up nationwide, with the stone heads appearing in a number of national newspapers and broadcasters including the BBC.
But the culprit was finally identified Tuesday as Billy Johnson, who makes the stone heads using fossils and rocks found on beaches.
"Using minimal hand tools, Billy works with natural materials in a fluid and responsive way, bringing out the beauty of each individual piece," said the website of Paradox Carving.
"Each of the larger head pieces is completed by twilight," it added. "Paradox Carving explores hypnagogic concepts love, madness and evolution. He started his latest work on 24 August 2007 and it is a long-term project."
He has some interesting stone heads available for sale. The news article says that another artist attempted to send an email to Johnson but got back a reply that stated : "the artist was out of the country for a few weeks, does not have a phone, does not use the Internet and does not have access to television."
But he sure knows how to work a publicity stunt.
Weird Stuff, World news | Gaius Tuesday, 2 October , 2007
By Anthony (Los Angeles), Tuesday, 2 October , 2007 @ 3:23 pm
Oh, those are neat! Too bad the shipping from the UK would be a killer.
By Gaius, Tuesday, 2 October , 2007 @ 3:34 pm
The taxes are brutal, too. I shipped something there once. Huge shipping charge and an ugly, ugly VAT bill that the guy had to pay - in cash - on delivery.