Mark Merer

Mark Merer undertakes projects in Architecture, Landscape and Sculpture. The studio has a team of associates ranging from Architects, Landscape Architects, Engineers and Fabricators to Environmental and horticultural specialists. Mark Merer’s work is rooted in the elements. They range from kinetic and balletic sculptures that move with the wind, to solid grass tors hewn from the earth. He was brought up in Malaya, where he spent much time on the beach flying kites and much of his work retains a love of light and air. But just as influential, perhaps, were the hours he spent digging sand. “I like to understand the landscape,” he says, “not just by walking through it or looking at it but by splitting it open to reveal what’s underneath. I want to peel back the crust to reveal Mother Earth.” Merer has just embarked on a new range of work investigating the nature of clay soils and how they respond to changes in the climate. “I was always fascinated by how the tides changed a beach each time it went out,” he says. In the past he has transformed a disused coalmine in the north of England into a sublime piece of landscape complete with tors, valleys and dells and planted with sculptures. “In the past, people felt the landscape much more than they do, now,” he says. “You become very much more aware of the landscape by putting objects in it.” Even the house in which he lives is a testament to his desire to get under the skin of Nature. Instead of a roof made of tiles or thatch, it has a wildflower meadow. “Sitting and looking at landscape is only ten percent of its pleasure - you may as well have it over the top of you,” he says. Catherine Milner