Dust.
James Hankey
The looped film depicts gravel-like material, the ‘overburden’ of an old copper and arsenic mine, collected on site, falling slowly into or rising from a black void. This void is one of many mine shafts in the area known as Great Consolidated Mines, near United Downs, Cornwall.
The audio was recorded on site, but unlike the visual footage, its tempo and direction has not been altered.
'At the same moment I had a pot and I did not have a pot'
This example demonstrates the whole law of the impermanence of things. In particular it shows the human condition.
If this is so, I, the hermit Mila, will strive to meditate without distraction.
The precious pot containing my riches,
Becomes my teacher in the very moment it breaks.
This lesson on the impermanence of things is a great marvel.’
This piece of handwriting, copied from a translation of a song by Milarepa, a Tibetan Buddhist poet from the 11th century, renowned for his ascetic lifestyle, was found recently whilst clearing out my partner’s father’s cottage. It was lying amongst tens of thousands of other singular pages that had been methodically ripped out of every book he owned. He is now in a care home having been struck by rapid onset dementia at the start of the first ‘lockdown’. The tearing out of singular book pages was perhaps, a meditative way of coping with his confusion or even a surprising leap towards an ascetic lifestyle amidst lonely lockdown life.
In many ways both the content of the song and the context of its discovery felt apt as a reflection to the ambiguity and conflict within the exhibition title ‘Of Earth For Earth’.
The title dust >| dust partly alludes to the phrase from the burial service in the Book of Common Prayer: 'we therefore commit this body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life’.
Rare earth elements have an absolute permanence, they are created in very rare and hugely energetic celestial events, and are essentially indestructible. People are more fragile.
The title also references the energy consuming processes of crushing down the mined ore to dust-sized particles, essential for refining and purifying purposes.
Alongside these thoughts, I have gestured towards the pictographic symbol for a diode, >| . A diode is a manufactured component that is essential in every electrical device. Its function is to allow electrical current to only flow in one direction.
The combining of the cyclical nature of all things in the phrase ‘dust to dust’, with the one-directional symbol for a diode is an intentional juxtaposition indicating the paradoxical nature of mankind’s ‘progress’ and the uneasiness in my thoughts towards the inevitability of mineral extraction.
For this commission I bought the latest IPhone 11+ for its super slow-motion camera capabilities to record the falling overburden into the disused mineshaft in United Downs. This area was once described as the ‘richest square mile in the world’ and helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. I then returned the phone within the fourteen-day returns period for a full refund, relaying to the Apple store attendant that I wasn’t satisfied with its capabilities yet. This is true, but I always intended to return the phone. Perhaps it is I that needs to live a more ascetic lifestyle.