Testament/Monument

This is a collection of photographs of little-known relics of an era that ushered in an unprecedented global impact. Situated in South Wales, one of the “powerhouses” of the Industrial Revolution, they are now divorced from their original context and most are not significant, accessible or substantial enough to be accorded individual historical relevance by the discourse and institutions of Heritage; they have been left in situ to an anonymous existence, belying their historical importance. Most are associated with mineral extraction, whether iron ore, limestone, granite or coal, whilst one, the Whiteford lighthouse, built in 1865, and the only surviving wave-washed cast-iron lighthouse in Europe, stands as an anachronistic memorial to the durability and long-lasting legacy of those industries. In the light of the naming of the current epoch as the Anthropocene, I want the viewer to engage with these relics’ paradoxical status: as iconic reminders of the heyday of the South Wales fossil fuel industries - with their attendant environmental effects, whilst, at the same time, emphasise their contemporary insignificance, irrelevance and neglect.