HILL

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This place belongs
to none of them,
but they belong
to it.
Exhibition at the Copeland Gallery, Peckham, from Feb 21st 2019.
The quarry - that place of fire and dust,
where rocks are blasted, cut and crushed
Once, there were sharks here,
now their bones are encased
in the limestone remains
of all the creatures that swam
in that ancient sea.
The wind makes mountains
of soft, white snow,
and throws ice, like darts,
in your eyes as it blows.
In the barn,
in straw stained
with afterbirth,
the ewes gather
as they wait
for the forces inside them
to bring new life.
With quiet precision,
Ian cuts the skin from
a stillborn lamb.
So now wearing that skin,
a motherless lamb
can feed from
the lambless ewe.
These are the moments
when life is most fragile.
When a swing by the legs,
or a helping breath
can be the difference
between spluttering life
and death.

photography, poetry, film, sculpture, song

Hill is the story of one Derbyshire Hill, told by a gathering of five artists. Photographer Kate Bellis, poet Lucy Peacock, songwriter Carol Fieldhouse, film maker Gavin Repton and sculptor Sally Matthews have spent 18 months working working with the hill, at this point in its many millions of years of life, and HILL is the result.

See the exhibition the Copeland Gallery, Peckham
21st Feb - 3rd March 2019
More details

About the Hill

The hill of the project title rises to the north of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, and runs west and northwards to join the limestone plateau of the White Peak.

This part of the hill that we're exploring is not in the Peak District, but then the Peak District boundaries seem to have been determined more by industry than geology. Here, industry is everywhere: from the huge quarries to the anonymous cages that cap narrow old shafts from nobody knows when.