Dent in the Universe
Hugo Burge believed that great art had to make a ‘dent in the universe’ – leaving the world more beautiful and interesting than before. The Foundation’s new Dent in the Universe fund aims to realise this belief by supporting the creation of permanent public artworks across the United Kingdom.
The Foundation will work with artists, landowners, community groups and partner organisations to deliver a series of highly ambitious projects. We will dedicate £100,000 per year towards individual artworks, some of which might receive multi-year funding. This makes it the largest single source of public art funding in Britain.
The first recipient of Dent in the Universe funding is Andy Goldsworthy’s Gravestones, in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland.
Andy Goldsworthy, Gravestones
What happens to the rock and soil that’s removed from the ground before a burial? After his ex-wife died a few years ago, Andy Goldsworthy began collecting excavated materials from graveyards around his home in Dumfries and Galloway.
Thanks to funding from the Hugo Burge Foundation, Goldsworthy will use this material to make a large outdoor work. Gravestones will be located on a spectacular site near Thornhill, on publicly accessible land provided by the Buccleuch Estates.
This complex work will consist of a rammed earth installation inside an old agricultural building and a 700m2 enclosure surrounded by dry stone walls. Goldsworthy will fill the enclosure with 450 tonnes of stones collected from graveyards all over the region, each one having made space for a human body.
Made in Goldsworthy’s 70th year, Gravestones is arguably his most personal work to date. The piece commemorates the elemental exchange between the living and dead, between us and the land on which we live.
Construction will begin in the spring of 2026.
