By Richard Turner

I was inspired to pair these two objects because of what they said to me about the sense of touch. The banded sedimentary stone on the right calls me to hold it in my hand and feel its rounded smooth surfaces and the heft of its dense weight. It fits comfortably into my hand in any position. Its surface has a slight texture very much like that of the skin of the back of my hand. Although the stone is hard and my hand is soft, the texture of the two is remarkably similar. The piece of bleached coral on the left aggressively resists my touch. It scratches, it cuts, there is no comfortable way to hold it. Its attraction is visual rather than tactile. Its allure is somewhat like that of an Elizabethan lace collar or ruff which was an expression of the wearer’s wealth and social standing. The bleached white color and the delicate lateral plates seduce gaze but resist touch. The coral appeals to the eye, the stone to the touch. Which then is the “viewing” stone?