VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages
Abstract
In Cornwall, UK, conical spoil heaps, the waste product from the China Clay mining industry, can be seen for miles. One of the most prominent has become a landmark known to the locals as the White Pyramid. Since 2014, there has been a petition to have it protected by the UNESCO World Heritage status after plans to have it removed to make room for a new eco-town. This paper explores the paradoxes of changing values to waste and beauty. Under the name of heritage, the White Pyramid is juxtaposed between a notion of a prosperous industrial past and the resulting environmental damage from which the landscape is slowly recovering. The choice between preservation, restoration or change is a complex one. The paper argues that an artistic approach might help to negotiate these issues. In contrast to the untouched White Pyramid, the paper includes an example of bioremediation as a form of artistic expression. On a disused mining site in Finland, the artist, Agnes Denes, realised her concept, Tree Mountain – A Living Time Capsule – 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years (1992-96). This paper compares the Cornish White Pyramid to Denes’ Tree Mountain by examining their materiality, form, vegetation and possible futures. This reveals the mining industry’s environmental impact, its complex socio-economic relationship with the Cornish people and their fight to retain the White Pyramid. It also recounts how Tree Mountain has secured protection to a forest, although stewardship issues gives it an uncertain future as a living sculpture.
Lilli Tranborg is an Oxford-based artist and sculptor with a special interest in environmental art. She is currently studying for a Masters in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University. Her current practice revolves around living art and art with environmental solutions, including aspects of participatory and cross-disciplinarian collaborations. Seeking to make art for human contemplation but also for a functioning ecosystem, she is exploring the role of the artist in introducing biodiversity to wastelands and creative ways of encouraging nature connectedness.