For the past two months I have been artist
in residence at St. Luke’s Parish Church, Grimethorpe.
During this time I have explored, investigated and observed
the place, the people and its history. At the beginning of
my process I delved into Grimethorpe’s past, reading
history books, visiting the Barnsley archives, and talking
to local historian Terry Middleton. To learn more about mining
and its effects in Grimethorpe I contacted community filmmaker
Tony Devoy and ex-miner Johnnie Woods as well as visiting
the National Coal Mining Museum library.
Throughout this research time
I developed workshops to be held in St. Luke’s Parish Church. This
process enabled me to find out how people feel about the place where live,
and together we discussed Grimethorpe’s past, present, future, physicality
and mentality using maps, words and objects – What does Grimethorpe
mean to me?
The culmination of my process
includes texts, images and objects placed within the church building.
Together they tell a story of my time here.
The objects found in and around
the church have been placed throughout the building creating subtle and
unobtrusive interventions within the space. Each object addresses a different
element of Grimethorpe, from its construction to its friendliness and
warmth.
Purposefully each object has
been positioned in consideration to its surroundings. The red poppies
poking up through a grate in the floor – for example – draw
reference from outside the church as they grow where destruction has taken
place, but they are also associated with remembrance and reflect key ideas
of the church as well as pointing to an old heating system that fails
to work.
A red brick elevated to an
upright position on a windowsill is surrounded by other ornamentation
but still, quite rightly, looks out of place – why is it here? Where
did it come from? These questions lie within each intervention around
the church but their answers are not instantly obvious. Our own perception
of our surroundings creates our experience of who we are and what we know.
The title of this work ‘Orientation’ serves to enhance our
own process of discovery and understanding.
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