Spoil/Spoilio May 25th - 28th 2007

A five day long exhibition of sculptures, performance, installations and video work at the Llywernog Lead/Silver Mine, http://www.silverminetours.co.uk/ Devil's Bridge and the bandstand in Aberystwyth from 25th-28th May. A preliminary event will be held in Aberystwyth on 19th May.

Work produced is inspired by the heritage of the mines, and include a series of educational workshops that will be part funded for primary schools around North Ceredigion.

 

Artists confirmed for involvement in the event include:

Alice Briggs, project coordinator and artist working in sculpture, installation and performance will be producing a piece of land art during the weekend of the bank holiday, using materials from the landscape. Some work will also include a performance with White Rope in the mines of the Llywernog.

Dressing Floor is inspired by the women who worked on the surface of the mine dressing the ore. Everyday objects related to domestic family life are arranged in ways that haunt are understandings of the post-industrial landscape as abandoned, alien and empty. As such, the objects work as micro-memorials to suggest entanglements between the mine and the intimate, familial and personal pasts of those who lived-laboured there.

The work is located in three different spaces. The ore dressing shed has been domesticated with net curtains and shows a 15 minute video filmed in the striking landscape of Cwm Ystwyth. The footage has been enhanced to emphasize the lunar qualities of the area. Other works involve a treasure trove that returns silver, processed as tableware, back to its origins in the mine, and various dressing of industrial remains with net curtain material.

Laura Harding and Rebecca Jones from 'White Rope' will be producing a performative documentary based around the environment of Ceredigion's mining heritage. http://www.whiterope.org/

Artist Ffion Rhys from Ystrad Meurig now lives in Cardiff. Ffion works as an arts educator and artist in new media and will be producing a film inspired by the environment and mining heritage. 

The work is a projection situated underground in the one of the tunnels at Llywernog, where two ghostly rail tracks disappear into the distance with poetic text about the mine running up and down the rails.

Carwyn Evans http://www.carwynevans.com/ Artist's statement:

'On finding a reference that the four working mines in and around Llywernog during the last century were also indentified as 'California of Wales', I intend to construct a replica of the famous Hollywood sign to spell out the name of this local landmark, 'LLEWERNOG' - Llewernog being an earlier spelling for the place.'

We have funding for the event from the 'Spirit of the Miners' fund at Ceredigion County Council and the Communities First Trust Fund.