Stone me! That really is some balancing act… Incredible rock structure to go on display at the Chelsea Flower Show
- The huge rock, named Bad Boy, will go on display at the Chelsea Flower Show
- The structure was balanced by sculpture artist Adrian Gray with a 35-ton crane
Pioneering sculpture artist Adrian Gray defies gravity with his latest stone structure which is the world’s tallest ever piece of man-made balance art.
Named Bad Boy, the mammoth rock combination will be displayed at the world-famous Chelsea Flower show which begins on Monday.
Balanced using a 35-ton crane, the enormous sculpture combines two Cornish Granite rocks weighing over 6tons each.
Said to hold an uncanny resemblance to a breaching whale, the perfectly shaped stones took Mr Gray three months to find.
Describing his triumphant feat Mr Gray told the Daily Mail: ‘This is my hardest to balance and most impactful sculpture to date.
Named Bad Boy, the mammoth rock combination will be displayed at the world-famous Chelsea Flower show which begins on Monday
Named Bad Boy, the mammoth rock combination will be displayed at the world-famous Chelsea Flower show which begins today
‘It is the most improbably tall piece of stone balancing art that has ever been balanced.
‘Bad Boy is the result of 20 years of experience balancing stones.
‘It started on the beach when I would just balance little pebbles but the stones gradually got bigger and bigger as I challenged myself to build more improbable balances.
‘This particular sculpture piece is a lesson in the forces of nature, in all its magnificent and undeniable stasis.
‘Balance has transformed these two huge boulders from something immovable and static to something elegant and moving.’
Mr Gray filmed the painstaking three-day balancing process which he has condensed into a two minute video.
Mr Gray said: ‘It is the most improbably tall piece of stone balancing art that has ever been balanced’
Punters will be invited to watch this on an outdoor television screen next to the sculpture to witness his balancing method in action.
Explaining the delicate balancing process Mr Gray said: ‘If it is a windy day I wouldn’t even attempt to balance the stones.
‘Though they are incredibly heavy so it would take quite a lot to move them.
‘But when they’re in these balanced positions they can be quite fragile.
‘And that’s the lovely paradox; you have got these massively heavy stones positioned in this very fragile way.’
For health and safety reasons the two stones will be held together with hidden stainless steel fixings for the show,
But maintaining the balancing illusion is an important part of stone balancing art.
Mr Gray explained: ‘I have to make sure that we’re not gonna have any terrible accidents.
‘But I don’t want to emphasise the fixings because I like people to subconsciously think of it being balanced.
‘All the fixings are very discreet so it looks exactly like it has been balanced.’
After the flower show the sculpture will be put up for sale.
Mr Gray has been perfecting the stone balancing art form for 23 years.
His work has been featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designed where he was dubbed ‘the stone whisperer’ by Kevin McCloud.
Celebrities including High Fearnley-Whittingstall and institutions including the RHS have commissioned his work.
This year The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by the Newt in Somerset, runs from May 22 to May 27.
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