Course and Flow

Art and Monuments
Written By Marco Fazio

A Permanent Public Artwork by Rachael Champion, fabricated in Derbyshire limestone by stoneCIRCLE

 
Course and Flow by Rachael Champion
 
“I’m most interested in responding to a place or a site with my work.”
— Rachael Champion
 

For her first permanent public sculpture, New York born and London based artist Rachael Champion crafted Course and Flow, a monumental stone artwork honouring the Moselle Brook, a hidden river flowing beneath the Clarendon Gasworks site in Haringey, North London.

Haringey topography with the Moselle Brook course

 
Course and Flow by Rachael Champion
 

This sculptural map traces the course of the river with blue resin inlays, layered with carved typography and visual references to the borough’s topography and green spaces. Champion’s artistic interest in the meeting points of nature and industry is reflected in the work’s materiality and method of making.

“The artwork is essentially a map. It’s a map of Haringey, but it’s also a map of the Moselle Brook.”

Collaboration with stoneCIRCLE

Champion discovered stoneCIRCLE while searching for the technology and expertise to realise her complex design.

“I found Stone Circle to work as the fabricators on this project with me by Googling a five-axis stone milling machine. Stone Circle was the first one that came up.”

What followed was a vibrant exchange between artist and fabricator, blending CNC precision with the expressive qualities of natural stone.

 
“It was a conversation… There was a lot of back and forth figuring out what the right stone was.”

The chosen material — Derbyshire Mandale limestone — was selected for its character, fossil inclusions, and storytelling potential.

“There are visible fossils throughout it when it’s cut… I definitely wanted to go with that.”
“What I love about it is that it actually honours the stone.”

Throughout the process, Champion embraced the textures and marks left by both quarrying and CNC cutting, traces that now serve as a visible record of the creation.

“Wherever there were any kind of markings from the manufacturing process, we decided to keep them in.”
 

Watch the full interview with Rachael Champion

 

project details

Course and Flow detail - Rachael Champion, stoneCIRCLE
Marco Fazio

Marco Joe Fazio is CCO and director of photography at space+style™ by marco joe fazio Ltd, working in fashion, hospitality, food & drink, architecture and design.

Born and raised in Tuscany, Italy, Marco learned the rudiments of photography and the magic of the darkroom in his early school years. Thereafter, he worked in architecture, interior, and lighting design for two decades. During those years, Marco founded an award-winning architectural studio and managed a multidisciplinary design team, working mainly for fashion industry clients.

Since moving to London in 2008, Marco has been recognised as a Chartered Architect of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) while pursuing his dream of connecting the worlds of architecture, design, and fashion from the photographer's perspective.

After years of passionate dedication, hard work and professional achievements, he was awarded the Fellowship certification (FBIPP) by the British Institute of Professional Photography and won the Peter Grugeon Award for the Best Fellowship of the Year in 2016. Subsequently, he has been admitted as a member of the highly regarded Association of Photographers (AOP). 

Having achieved a stronghold in coordinated image and photography for the design and fashion world, Marco has taken his expertise into the hospitality market; luxury and boutique hotels, fine dining restaurants, and the drinks and beverage industry are all reaping benefits from his services.

Today, Marco is leading his agency in assignments in the hospitality, fashion, and design industries.

Creative photography, cinematography, coordinated images and brand marketing form the core of his services.

Thanks to more than a decade in the music industry, Marco has expendable knowledge in composition and sound engineering. That knowledge is a valuable asset in creating licensed soundtracks and magnetic sound designs for commercial productions.

Marco's passion and another branch of his business are mentoring and nurturing new visual arts talents. In 2016, he launched "telling [fashion] stories" – photography & set design workshops – and more recently, he has become a lecturer for the School of Art and Creative Industries at London South Bank University (LSBU).

The crossover between genres and industries is a peculiar and essential factor in his work, contributing to thinking outside the box and achieving a unique style rich in symbolism and content.

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An Age, An Instant