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“Above
us there are strip lights. They make the mine dim, not light.
The
ground is rough, uneven and dust coloured. As are the walls. As is the ceiling.
Perhaps
I expected roads made out of concrete, fake ceilings, a factory underground.
What I
see is more primitive
yet we
are on a truck driving through the mine, in the ground under the North Sea and
so
We are
far from primitive
yet we
are so close to the Earth that perhaps , and yes,
we are primitive.”
Excerpt from 2. The Picture in your head’, Joanna Brown
2012
In May 2012, Pauline
Woolley was one of 7 other artists invited by Rednile Projects to travel 1100
metres down and then 6 miles out underneath the North Sea to the workface of
Boulby Potash Mine in Cleveland. Due to its depth, the mine is also home the UK’s
Dark Matter Research Laboratory.
No photographic or
electronic equipment could be taken into the mine so memory, a set of
laboratory overalls, some potash samples and a few jotted notes was all that
was captured during the intensive experience.
Industrial and artistic physical
processes have been at the core of the creation of the work. Photography, digital imaging, grid
drawings, photograms and darkroom printing have been used to create fictitious
primitive alien landscapes denoting above and below the ground of the mine.
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The insignificant career of an artist, 95 cm x 65 cm, inkjet print - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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There is no view of the moon, 95cm x 65 cm, inkjet print - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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Fake ceilings, 95cm x 65 cm, inkjet print - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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There is no view of the sun, 95 cm x 65 cm, inkjet print - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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It is not day here or night, 95cm x 65 cm, inkjet print - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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Falling apart from the earth into the hands
of man 1, 40cm x 30 cm - Pauline Woolley 2013
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Falling apart from the earth into the hands of man 2, 40cm x 30 cm - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
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Falling apart from the earth into the hands of man 3, 40cm x 30 cm - Pauline Woolley 2013 |
