From Longdendale valley to Shinning Clough

Originally made for the In the Open Exhibition, across Sheffield Arts Institute and East Bank Arts, Sheffield, UK, this work is a collaboration with American poet Laura-Gray Street, opening September 2017. It has recently featured in the first Sino-British Biennale at the Yantai Contemporary Art Museum, China, 2018. [To Shining Clough] is a new short time-based work which takes as its subject the ‘Longdendale lights’, which are said to originate from a valley in the moorlands of Derbyshire, not far from Sheffield. The valley has gained a reputation for strange phenomena including witness accounts of encounters with unexplained lights, especially around an area known as the Shining Clough and the Bleaklow Mountains. While the valley has been regarded as a site of folklore it has now been suggested the phenomena may be caused by the earth’s internal traumas; literally in an area of geological fault pressure can grow on underlying rocks leading to a build-up of electrical charge released as luminosity. Using the topology of the valley as a starting point we will develop images, prose and recorded actions that will both search for and reflect on the implications of the earthlights of Longdendale This work also features on the following UAL Research Online webpages: • Conference paper: 'Longdendale Lights: Perspectives (I) and Longdendale Lights: Perspectives (II)., presented at 'Cross, Multi, Intra, Trans conference at Sheffield Arts Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, as part of the Land2 research and Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, U.K. and Ireland research networks. http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13675/ • 'In the Open' exhibition at Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery: featuring my collaborative digital film ‘Longdendale Lights to Shining Clough’, made with American poet Laura-Gray Street. https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13679/ • The First Biennial Sino-British Contemporary Art Exhibition http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/13678/