‘Scissor, Paper, Stone’, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham (1994)

In a series of triptych pieces begun in 1991, Scissor, Paper, Stone, Lydiat’s hands are photographed against standing stones from megalithic sites in Northumbria and at Evora in Portugal. Using a technique of photographic overlay, the hands take on the phantasmic, shadowy form of ancient lichened rocks. Like the stones, they appear weathered by time and bear the marks ritual signified, for example, in the wedding ring on the left hand. The gestures of the hands are based on the child’s game of the title, suggesting a form of repetition in play which, as in ritual, has a therapeutic function.  

Rosemary Betterton (1996)