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This two month Immersive residency period on the primitive coal fields of South Pembrokeshire looked at the local and largely un-mapped sites of coal extraction around Londonderry Farm, Jeffreyston. The residency evolved through an expanded use of drawing inclusive of walking and sensory encounter, and developed through the use of site specific materials and creating a series of intaglio plates.

 

This residency expanded on themes from previous work, where land is an archive with the ability to hold and present layers of information from its history. Within this landscape the contexts of its post industrial situation the interests became more related to the residues of industry within the earth. Bright orange mine-water pools signal a deep and vast unseen network of mines under the surface that react chemically in the present. The presence of ochre's denotes both anthropocentric and industrial history. The distinction between these two traces in the soil became of interest. The land was 'speaking' through colours, and there were discussions of the full spectrum of its anthropocene, geological and industrial history.

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The presence of coal throughout the project in everything, from its seeping out of deeply dug badger sets in the side of old spoil heaps long grown over, to the lurid red flashes in the pools left behind after its extraction. There was an overwhelming connection to the deep layering actions of the land, an, archival action that led to its formation, and a dialogue with its extraction through to its present. the stark contrast between this rainforest, on top of industrial land, that resulted from millions of years of deeply compressed rainforest was profound. A mirroring through this communication with past and present meant these layers were more fluid, and able to interact more freely.

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