COMMON IIII - Kaunas- September 2015
COMMON III - Meinblau e.V. - May 2015
Un-cut performance footage of COMMON III at Meinblau e.V.(meinblau.de) for MPA-B (mpa-b.org/) - May 2015
Film: Christopher Hewitt: liveartwork.com
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Film: Jana Burger
COMMON I - Berlin + II - Magdeburg - October 2014
Photography: Luz Scherwinski
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"I am a miner's son and my granddad was one I am a miner's son and my granddad was one Five Generations of miners and I just lost one" COMMON draws a light on the North East of England - the region that fueled the Great British Empire through their offshore coal mining industry. People in the North East have given their lives for generations, some lives were very short as a direct result of this hard and dangerous work. Today over 20 years after the closing of the mines and Norman Tebbit told the then recently unemployed to “get on your bike” to find work. The unemployment in the North East is higher than any other region in the UK. The people who are still there are left with no job prospects and no hope for the future. No wealth is distributed from the south over the northern border as London is surrounded by a strong fortress that keeps all money and investment within its borders. As I saw over the past summer, the poverty is so stark it is visible on the streets in the lack of cars and boarded up shops. Throughout the epicly beautiful landscape there are ghost towns where industry use to be. In my research I reference the old industry though the patterns of circles I draw with the wheels and my movement, in the audio and the coal I use. I create a poetic picture of the ex-industrial unemployment system/situation, that destroys so many lives in the North East today. As many people do in this region, my father committed suicide as a direct result of the hopeless situation in the North East. “After 25 years of living and working successfully abroad in Germany and South Africa he came home to a bleak and uncaring society. He became increasingly indebted and dispirited, presenting a brave face and hiding his eventual despair.” (More of the text for COMMON can be found here) |
