‘It must be somewhere here’ is a year-long survey of the Northern deep coal-mining landscape. As the granddaughter of two miners, it acts as both a geographical study and inquiry into ancestry. A departure to colour depicts former colliery sites which have been visually affected by the chemical aftermath of deep coal-mining. Unnaturally high levels of manganese in still-draining mine-water stains rocks orange, and the erosion of cliff formations reveals materials from a colliery landfill. I record various places of memorial and colliery remains. Through ‘slow’ large format photography, and the photopolymer gravure, I create works in which time cannot be specified, where the process is elongated as much as possible, commenting on manual labour, materiality and the ritual of returning home to walk in the empty industrial lands where man once laid his hand.
