NewCold Cyrogenics

As part of the Yorkshire Sculptors Group exhibition ‘Temporal Terrains’ at The Dean Clough 7th September – 6th October I have presented a new sculpture. One of the curatorial factors was for the artworks to have wheels, this is in part to reflect the fragile and temporary nature of the earth which we inhabit, but also to engage both conceptually and materially with their mobile and transitory nature.

I proposed a work which reflected my own current concerns and interests, and these are the developments that have been made on the old colliery sites.  Using the idea of ‘memoryscapes’ I have researched and produced my own text which explores the history and social background of the colliery grounds, as well as its current use by NewCold LTD.“

The pits soon began to offer a cryogenic freezing service to the miners as the government closures began to bite. 143,000 miners were frozen after the strikes hit, some who’d used their redundancy money for the process”.

Opposite the NewCold building there is a layby where after construction a lot of debris was left. There were also many fridges, freezers and one office drinks machine for cooling, considering the use of the building for refrigeration purposes I considered this odd. By collecting found objects from the site which were used in the construction of the final work I planned to construct a large-scale figurative piece, which in part reflected its corporate capitalist origins, as well as its more user friendly socialist roots, as a coalmine that used to employ many thousands of men.