In 1788 James Hutton determined that the Earth was far older than the 6,000 years generally accepted from biblical interpretations by observing at Siccar Point (on the North Sea Coast in Berwickshire, Scotland) a geological process he called Unconformity. Between the two distinct geological layers is a missing gap of 64 million years of destruction and erosion. Unconformity is also a powerful metaphor for how historically as well as currently, a seam of culture can be easily eroded and destroyed not by nature but wilfully, by tyrannical rule.

Timed to coincide with IN TIME RSA 200th Annual Exhibition the cross disciplinary symposium comprises artists, musicians, writers and performers whose work speaks directly to these missing layers in our cultural history.

The symposium uses the geological phenomenon of UNCONFORMITY as a way of looking at both the strength as well as fragility of culture, and how easily it can be eroded and erased. The contributors’ works will deal with the substance of absence; where the void, silence, or erasure becomes the primary subject, making tangible what is missing, lost, or forgotten. An absent presence which might explore memory, trauma, and the haunting traces of existence, the lingering evidence of something that is no longer there, either through a natural erosion or an intentional removal. An exploration that will be thought- provoking, witty and memorable.