THE FUTURE OF MARBLE

This stone is set to remain as covetable today as it was in Phidias’s time

Thanks to the enormous diversity in the supply of marble, the large number of quarries around the world and the continued interest in using the material for sculpture, architecture and domestic decor, marble will continue to be as popular as it has been for centuries. ‘Many interesting new stones are being quarried across the globe, including Africa, the Middle East and China, so I expect that sculptors will be looking to exploit the vibrant colours of these marbles in the future,’ says Charlotte Schelling.

One such sculptor, Emily Young, who was described by the Financial Times as ‘Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor’, works with marble in a way that celebrates its natural origins and imperfections. Faces are carved into huge blocks while the remaining stone is left raw, rugged and exposed, almost the complete antithesis to the way sculptors worked in the past.

Although Alex Puddy believes marble will primarily be seen as ‘a classic material for sculptors’, he sites Turner prize-winning Rachel Whiteread as one to watch in the future, while British designer Lee Broom is using marble in lighting, candlesticks and even glassware. His Tube light, a modern twist on the fluorescent strip, is created from a single block of thinned-out Carrara marble and finished with brass fittings at the ends. Lee likes the luxurious, ‘nouveau riche’ feeling of marble, but then turns it on its head to create something utterly unique and contemporary.