Cyanotype overlay: St. Peters Chapel and Insulators from the disused substation at Bradwell A 2020
EarthWorks
bore samples and dorodango's
"The flat tradition from Geography and cartography has resulted in a mainly horizontal worldview. We find it hard to escape the resolutely flat perspective. This is a political failure as well as a perceptual one. As it disinclines us to attend to the sunken networks of extraction, exploitation and disposal that supports the surface world. The Underland is vital to the material structures of contemporary existence as well as to our memories, myths and metaphors."
Robert Macfarlane in his book Underland referring to Stephen Graham’s book Vertical.
Bore samples
Earthworks is a community inquiry about depositing Nuclear waste. I will take participants below the flat Essex landscape.
Nirex (Nuclear Industry Radioactive Waste management Executive) was established in 1982 with the remit to develop disposal routes for Intermediate-level waste. In Essex at the Blackwater estuary stands Bradwell A a decommissioned Nuclear Power station. Situated Further East is the off grid Othona Community and the 7th Century St.Peter's Chapel, in between lies agricultural land. This land was in 1986 investigated by Nirex as a potential site for shallow repository for nuclear waste. Over 260 bore samples were taken to ascertain the geology of this site.In 1987, the proposals were dropped and Nirex concentrated instead on identifying a suitable location for a deep multi-purpose facility, elsewhere in the UK.
The bore samples are stored at the British Geological Survey.
www.bgs.ac.uk/news/the-art-of-boreholes-essex-artists-visit-the-bgs-to-be-inspired-by-our-library-of-geological-core/
The samples are taken from various depths ranging from 40 metres - down to London Chalk at 150 metres. Going down in time to the early Eocene Epoch 50 million years ago.
dorodango's
The origin of Dorodango’s are not clear but the story goes that Japanese children collected dirt/clay from the playground and rolled this into tight clay balls, burnishing them to a shine. They do not need firing in a kiln and are beautiful objects representing place and time.
Making a Dorodango stands in contrast to the investigative work of a bore sample. Personal versus industrial heritage. Deep time insecurity versus an afternoon of personal connection to the land.
EarthWorks as a project will scratch the surface of issues like Nuclear heritage , Energy Transition, Bradwell B, the use of energy and our place/control over all this. EarthWorks will do this by twinning dorodango's with the bore samples. Inviting community groups to join with this exploration. This 2 year project will result in a photographic archive of twinning, one dorodango for one boresample. The work will be displayed at the Art studio of The Othona Community.
I am in the process of applying for funding for this project.
Please feel free to contact me if you want to be involved
Making a Dorodango stands in contrast to the investigative work of a bore sample. Personal versus industrial heritage. Deep time insecurity versus an afternoon of personal connection to the land.
EarthWorks as a project will scratch the surface of issues like Nuclear heritage , Energy Transition, Bradwell B, the use of energy and our place/control over all this. EarthWorks will do this by twinning dorodango's with the bore samples. Inviting community groups to join with this exploration. This 2 year project will result in a photographic archive of twinning, one dorodango for one boresample. The work will be displayed at the Art studio of The Othona Community.
I am in the process of applying for funding for this project.
Please feel free to contact me if you want to be involved