Angela Palmer's 'Altar of Time' is a powerful piece, simple in concept but throbbing with ancient energy and glittering with its almost galactic beauty in the swirls of stone. Created for her 2023 solo show 'Deep Time' in which Palmer strove to illuminate the genesis of the UK and to remind us that the land on which we stand in the UK, and which Britons know as home, was originally located in the Southern Hemisphere, close to the South Pole.

Palmer said: “When I began this project I had no idea that our country originated near the South Pole, and that for billions of years Scotland and Northern Ireland enjoyed an entirely separate existence on a different continent to England and Wales. It was only when the tectonic plates shifted that they collided and were physically united, just south of the Equator,
425m years ago.”

She continues, "England and Scotland were ‘stitched’ together as a united country at roughly the same location as today’s Anglo-Scottish border. I hope observers will unlock their imaginations and allow themselves to be propelled to the South Pole where the most ancient of 3 these rocks in this exhibition began their journey - a silent world with little oxygen, with no trees nor fish nor birds nor beasts.”

'Deep Time' offered a unique portrait of our nation, capturing the materials, colours and textures imprinted on our land from the rocks below, which were used to build our homes, from the most modest to the grandest, our institutions, our country's landmark buildings, and our bridges.