Skip to contents

Deep Material Encounters, a symposium bringing together researchers and artists from across the arts and sciences, was held at Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean, one of the country’s oldest iron ore mines, on Friday 15 April 2016.

Featured Media

Deep Material Encounters - Clearwell Caves
Deep Material Encounters - Clearwell Caves, 2016

Image from press release

Spectre (Searching for Lorenzetti), installation, Clearwell Caves
Spectre (Searching for Lorenzetti), installation, Clearwell Caves, Henrietta Simson, 2016, HDV projection, 375 x 500 cm, 13 mins, loop

The symposium brings together researchers and artists from across the arts and sciences to discuss ways that knowledge is developed, and perceptions altered, through encounters with particular materials, in the context of current ecological conditions.

The event includes formal presentations, screening/installation of video/film works and performance.

Presenters

Spike Bucklow is the Senior Research Scientist at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge, and author of ‘The Alchemy of Paint’ (2009) and ‘The Riddle of the
Image’ (2014), both about the meaning of materials in art.

Prof. David Dobson Professor of Earth Materials in University College London
His talk is titled “A short history Iron in the Earth (and beyond).”

Dr Ruth Siddall is a geoarchaeologist at UCL who applies analytical techniques from the field of Earth sciences to further the understanding of cultural material, primarily pigments, construction and decorative stone, ceramics and plasters.

Henrietta Simpson artist and PhD researcher, Slade School of Fine Art.

Kay Tabernacle artist and PhD researcher Slade School of Fine Art. Subterranean Utterances.

Philip Thompson artist and PhD researcher Slade School of Fine Art.

Jonas Brinker artist showing film ‘Franklin’ 2014.

Chaired by Andrew Stonyer artist and chairman of the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust and Jo Volley artist, Senior Lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art.

Charcoal Works at Hardwick Gallery

The symposium accompanies Charcoal Works at Hardwick Gallery from 6 – 22 April 2016. Charcoal Works is an exhibition of commissioned artworks that have been produced with the charcoaled remains of an iconic oak sculpture 'Place', that stood on the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail for 29 years.

Charcoal Works includes work by artists Edward Allington, Sophie Bouvier Auslander, Jess Bryant, Marcin Gawin & Malgorzata Lucyna Zajac, Tess Jaray, James Keith, Sam Llewellyn- Jones, Lisa Milroy, Onya McCausland, Jayne Parker, Jack Southern,Andrew Stonyer, Joy Sleeman, Lotte Scott, Kay Tabernacle and Jo Volley.

Alongside the exhibition and symposium, Onya McCausland has created a new work for the Sculpture Trail. Charcoal Measure refers to the underground coal excavations 1000ft below the surface.