Out of Darkness Light

This is old thing I did from 2006. I was 21. It’s a memorial light installation on the site of a former coal mine. The name is taken from the Latin phrase “Ex Luce Et Tenebris” meaning Out of Darkness Light. All my grandfathers dating back to the 1830s worked at this coal mine. It was a tribute to them, how their lives spent underground shaped both the terrain and community.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Here’s a short film… WATCH ME!

This was a second light installation on the old miners footbridge which features at the  start of the film. We bought cheap spot lights from a local shop, 10 facing either side of the bridge. There was an mist on the night which made the whole experience very atmospheric. About 100 people crammed on the boat to view the installations. Everyone became speechless because the mist on the river with the spot lights creating this mad reflection. It was a 10minutes of collectivism, a captive audience on a boat starring at lights. I’d created this weirdly powerful moment. After the event my dad said to me, “you re-created it….that’s what it felt like during the strike”. I knew then that what I was looking for was the very thing that was missing from society a sense of collective spirit and belonging.

The 20 lights on this bridge representing the 20 years since the pits closure in 1986 marking the end of coal industry in the area.

This image was taken by my good friend Claire Bennett.