Limelight
Autumn 2016
Limelight is a project developed by collaborative artists Rob Smith and Charles Danby, based in Newcastle. Supported by Peak and the Canal & River Trust, the project researches and responds to the working landscape of canals, quarries, tramways and kilns that serviced the lime industry of the rural Black Mountains which in turn fed the nation’s heavy industries that roared through South Wales. Rob and Charles organised a replica limekiln burning at Llangattock during their research week in the Black Mountains in September 2016. The public event introduced the project and facilitated discussion about the lime industry and canal network.
The artists presented the culmination of their research as part of Cardiff Contemporary 2016, bringing reflections on this history to urban audiences by streaming live illuminations at nightfall from Llangattock Limekilns in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park to the Welsh capital and online. The live stream event presented multiple perspectives of landscape, combining live with recorded footage, audio and performance in an immersive experience. The illuminations were created with limelight itself, an intense, pure white light generated through heating quicklime at high temperature, used in the 19th century for land survey work and stage lighting. Each live broadcast will lasted as long as it took for the chemical reaction to be exhausted.
In addition to the livestream event, Peak’s Horsebox Studio was installed outside Cardiff Castle during the opening weekend of Cardiff Contemporary (Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd October) which acted as a resource space for members of the public with an intriguing collection of artist films, vintage books, maps and lime materials related to the Limelight project.
About the Artists
Artists Rob Smith and Charles Danby are based in Newcastle and have collaborated since 2011. Rob brings a materially engaged approach to digital technologies, exploring the possibilities of live and networked art such as Radiometer (2011) and Field Broadcast – a live streaming project that enables artists to make live broadcasts from remote sites. Charles brings wide academic and curatorial experience challenging conventional approaches to archives and British art histories including projects such as Grand National – Art from Britain, Vestfossen, Norway (2010), Animated Environments, Siobhan Davies Studios, London (2011-12) and Das Traumann at Baltic (2015). He is a senior lecturer at Northumbria University.
In 2014 Smith and Danby organised Revisiting the Quarry, a symposium in conjunction with the Hayward exhibition Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966-79 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. In 2014 the artists were commissioned as part of Shelter, a project on Lindisfarne, Northumberland. Taking limestone from a quarry on the island they made a small scale lime kiln and produced quicklime that was subsequently used to create new sculptures called Repaired Rocks. These works repaired limestone rocks from the quarry, extending themes of industrial process within the landscape and the nature of post-industrial reparation to a site. www.danbysmith.comIn the middle of all this, in an idyllic spot behind the castle – the Blorenge flicks cloud from its shoulders in the distance – stands the Peak Horsebox Studio, a haven of culture, thoughtfulness, opportunity, education, fun. Jon Pountney, the commissioned artist, has produced a new photography collection called ‘The Living Valley’ inspired by the food producers of the Llanthony Valley. He has sourced photos of Treveddw Farm from Edith James, whose family has lived on the farm since the late 1920s. These fascinating family portraits, school photographs and pictures of farming life offer a window on history; I was reminded of the wonderful RS Thomas poem ‘Cynddylan on a Tractor.’ Alongside these, Jon has produced images of what it looks like now, which offer an illuminating contrast with the originals. A horse looks out of its stall as if keeping an eye out for visitors. A road leads off into the distance in a beautiful rolling valley.
The photographs trigger a range of memories among visitors, who know people or places in the photos, or know someone who does, or think they recognise someone or somewhere, but are a few streets or miles or a generation out. Jon is influenced by the way art can build connections between people, and the way the Horsebox is a means of getting art out to audiences who may not have access to it. He describes the Valley as a ‘magical, interesting, otherworldly kind of area…as if you’ve passed into another dimension.’
Over the course of the weekend, the Horsebox is also a place for children. Emma Beynon’s wonderful poetry workshops inspire joyous poems about food. Here are a few among many examples of the children’s lines, which any poet would love to have written: ‘The apple is an orange in disguise,’ ‘the apple is a mohawk hair cut,’ ‘the apple is curvy as a hammock,’ ‘the cheese is a creamy yellow miniskirt, subtle but bold and confident.’
Jon’s photographs also inspire writing. ‘Poem to the Valley,’ which I’ll end this piece with, is a communal poem, combining lines from a range of people who visited the Horsebox throughout the weekend, offering a snapshot of visitors’ thinking and reminiscing, the journeys that they went on, inspired by Jon’s wonderful photographs.
About the partners
Cardiff Contemporary was a citywide festival of contemporary arts, showcasing a programme of exhibitions, events and activities led by Cardiff Council. The last iteration of Cardiff Contemporary was in 2016.
Limelight was part of the Canal & River Trust’s 2016 Arts on the Waterways programme. The programme offered time and space to artists, producers and curators to make new work and engage new audiences for both the waterways and the arts. www.canalrivertrust.org.uk
Limelight was one of five project supported as part of Digital Innovation Fund for the Arts in Wales, a strategic partnership between Arts Council of Wales and Nesta. The partnership is helping arts organisations in Wales to experiment with digital technology as a tool to reach new audiences. Peak is working in collaboration with BBC Cymru Wales to research the use of live-streaming digital technology in site-specific locations in the Brecon Beacons National Park. www.innovation.arts.wales
Established in 1995, Ty-Mawr Lime Ltd has made an enormous contribution to resurrecting the use of traditional building materials. Ty-Mawr has gone on to become a market leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of environmentally-friendly building materials and systems, providing a ‘one-stop’ shop for its customers and clients across the UK. www.lime.org.uk