NAN

Ruth Jones talks about her NAN and AHRC funded collaborative project with Andrea Williams in Pembrokeshire.

Chwarel is a collaborative project between Ruth Jones and Andrea Williams funded by a NAN Collaborative Bursary and by the Arts Humanities Research Council. The project focuses on the disused Porthgain granite quarry in Pembrokeshire, which will lead to a film installation to be exhibited for the first time in Howard Gardens Gallery, Cardiff in February 2010. The granite quarry is a fascinating site to work with because traces of its history are visible in the hewed rock and in the remains of the brick buildings that formed part of the working operation. Today, grass is growing over the rocks, and birds are nesting in the crevices created by the quarrying. The quarry is 'in between' its past as an industrial site and its present as an ecological site and a place of leisure and curiosity. The film hopes to evoke this infusion of historical, cultural and geographical resonances.

The film has been shot in 16mm from a fixed position in the quarry from where the camera slowly rotates in a continual 360 degree panorama. Within this panorama, a number of simple actions take place that will hopefully evoke both the present uses of the quarry, and recall its past. For one of these actions, the artists put a call out in local papers for 80 men -or women dressed as men- to take part in the recreation of a photograph of quarry workers at Porthgain from 1908. This black and white photo was a source of fascination because the quarrymen are tiered back into the rock in lines which seem to echo the strata of the rock itself, creating the uncanny effect that the men have emerged from the rock or are about to disappear into it. The local papers proved to be an excellent way to recruit volunteers, and in addition a number of people telephoned to give information about their relatives who had worked at Porthgain in the past. One woman who got in touch was in Pembrokeshire on holiday from Leicestershire and happened to see the article. She was the grand daughter of Mr. Crone who was the manager of the quarry for over 30 years.

Filming took place over the weekend of the 5th and 6th September, and nearly 70 people took part and truly entered into the spirit of the event. Not only did they look amazing standing against the quarry walls, but while they walked the half mile journey round the coast path to the quarry from Porthgain, it was easy to imagine the daily experiences of the quarry workers as they walked to work all those years ago. A number of unsuspecting walkers from the present day who encountered them probably thought they had slipped back in time!

Once the film stock is developed and transferred to a high quality digital format, the real hard work begins. The final installation will make use of both 5:1 surround sound and directional speakers and the intention is to use sound as much as image to try to evoke the quarry. By paying attention to the minutiae of sounds, and our ability to construct meaning from sound even when we don't see its source, it is hoped that a feeling of really being in the quarry will be generated - suspended between the past and the present.

Ruth Jones is an artist based in Pembrokeshire. www.ruthjonesart.co.uk

First published: a-n.co.uk February 2010