Crosscut

A site-responsive art Installation

Crosscut is a multisensory, otherworldly experience that immerses the audience in the sights, sounds and atmosphere of the subterranean world of mining. The viewer will experience the sensation of standing at the edge of a mineshaft looking down into an abyss that becomes alive with visual and audio fragments of authentic, mining knowledge and memories; some unusual and surreal, but none the less real.

The term ‘crosscut’ refers to a tunnel that spans a mine’s network, supplying material from deep underground for extraction to the surface. The installation Crosscut presents excavated recollections within a hybrid space, a fusion of contemporary art and history that transcends the traditional museum display.

Cornish artist James Barber has spent the last year engaging with Geevor’s mineworkers past and present, their families and extended community. He has documented these conversations, and responded to the site and his own subterranean experience. Unlike other cultural responses to mining history, which might form a backdrop for fictional events, or inspiration for a studio based art practise, Crosscut generates a unique sense of ‘place’ through authentic recollections, and a sustained dialogue with the site. This is at the heart of the process. As a result, the physical construction of the installation happened with the help of several ex-miners, utilising their experience and expertise. Crosscut has emerged and been realised through a developing interaction between Geevor, its history and an embedded site-related art practise.

Funded by: Bright Sparks, Feast, Cornwall Museums Partnership, Geevor Tin Mine Pendeen