A brand new challenge at Queercircle house in Greenwich, south London, chronicles an vital pilgrimage made throughout England. The artist Bones Tan Jones just lately launched into a six-day journey from Silvertown Tunnel, which is beneath development beneath the River Thames, to Stonehenge. The exhibition Tunnel Visions (till 21 December) charts the pilgrimage, exploring historical ley strains, the specter of air pollution and the onslaught of urbanisation. The centrepiece is a four-metre-high, central monolith crafted from clay, electrical cabling and tree-climbing rope impressed by a 2,500-year-old Anckerwycke Yew tree that Tan Jones encountered on her travels. We requested the artist how their experiences formed the present.
The Artwork Newspaper: Is the work a protest piece about fracking?
Bones Tan Jones: Tunnel Visions is a site-specific exhibition shining a light-weight on the pointless tunnels being constructed at Silvertown/Greenwich and Stonehenge. The Silvertown tunnel being drilled beneath Queercircle from Greenwich to Newham—two of the UK’s most polluted boroughs—will create extra visitors and extra air pollution in locations the place kids’s lungs are already smaller than the lung sizes of youngsters in additional prosperous areas. The tunnel beneath Stonehenge would do the identical, not solely that however it’s desecrating a sacred web site [the UK government plans to build a two-mile tunnel close to the ancient site though this is yet to be finalised].
It’s not simply the stones that maintain energy, however the land across the stones which are sacred too. Although the work isn’t instantly about fracking, it’s vital that we see these instruments of destruction as linked and recognise the impression they’ve on the well being of people and the Earth.
What was essentially the most enlightening a part of the pilgrimage to Stonehenge? And essentially the most disturbing?
I discovered that the ability of track was my most potent gas. After I was feeling low—in power, energy and motivation—singing previous people songs or making up my very own improvised songs, helped me get to my vacation spot, lifted my spirits and linked me to the land.
On day three I wished to camp at an Iron Age lengthy barrow in Chobham Widespread. I used to be turned away a number of occasions by safety guards “defending” non-public land. After I lastly reached it I found the Lengthy Slender, an historical burial mound, had been was an ESSO gasoline pipeline. Above it ran electrical energy pylons and the crackle of the electrical energy was so loud I may hear it via the chicken track. As my favorite people track goes: “No man has the fitting to personal mountains. Any greater than the deep ocean mattress” (The Manchester Rambler by Ewan MacColl).
The set up will grow to be a community-led marketing campaign house in the course of the exhibition?
Tunnel Visions is a generative challenge. Simply as my pilgrimage was a catalyst for conversations and creation, so too will the exhibition. Although digging on the Silvertown Tunnel has begun, there may be nonetheless a possibility to cease it getting used for vehicles and heavy items autos, so Queercircle are collaborating with Cease the Silvertown Coalition on a sequence of workshops and occasions to amplify their marketing campaign and empower native folks to take motion; from marketing campaign and consciousness elevating to a challenge to think about inventive various makes use of for the tunnel with native colleges.
• Tunnel Visions, Queercircle, London, till 21 December
