How the miner looks: a viewpoint and a tunnel (2015)
Developed and presented through Blackrock residency and exhibition, organised by Matts Gallery and Lydney Park Estate (2015)
During my residency at Lydney Park Estate I spent time with some of the remaining Freeminers working in the Forest of Dean. Mining is a historic common right within the forest, currently exercised by fewer than 80 miners. These miners operate small scale coal mines according to the freemining tradition, usuing manual tools and labourious processes, becoming intimately acquainted with the rock that they extract, and every bump and recess within the tunnels of their mines. I focussed particuarly upon one miner, James, whose mine is not operational, but rather historic. Working around his day job, James spends Saturdays and weekday evenings deep in the mine. He is slowly attempting to restore the tunnel and prop system in order to reach a potentially unexploited coalface, this task has so far taken several years. Inside the mine, visibility is restricted to the light of a headlamp. Looking in the mine is a form of highly directed, macro-seeing. Slowly working his way along the obstructed tunnel, he cleans old machinery, clears debris and replaces wooden struts. He is caring for the coal mine.
The final outcome of the work was a two part experience, a walk to a viewpoint in the estate woods (viewpoint), and a video, drawing and spoken word performance in a grain barn (tunnel). Click on the images to see more.
Viewpoint
was a path made by walking through the forest, which led to a viewpoint that looked down into a ‘scowle’ in the Devil’s Chapel area of Lydney Park Estate.
Scowles are natural geological features in the Forest of Dean, taking the form of deep labyrinthine hollows. They are traditionally assumed to be the remains of prehistoric and early-historic iron-ore extraction, however recent archeological work suggests that they are the exposed remains of ancient cave systems in which iron ore was been deposited as water flows through the coal measures of the central forest area. These natural chasms and caves were later subject to mining, creating a complex underground network of mines and natural caves.
The path leads the visitor around several scowle features, deeper into this strange landscape, ending at a fenced viewpoint (built with a forester from the Estate) that leads the viewer along a narrow promontory over a deep chasm, to look down, into the ground.