RESTORATION - Interpreting Place

RESTORATION interpreting place Interpreting place

Mesolithic footprint (left) and Irene Rogan’s footprint in ore-infused sand surrounding RSPB Hodbarrow

A RESPONSE TO WORKING IN AND AROUND THE COASTAL TOWN OF MILLOM Cumbria

www.redrift.net/restoration www.irenerogan.co.uk/restoration Contact: irenerogan@gmail.com

RESTORATION ‘RESTORATION’ is a series of site-specific artworks created by Irene Rogan as part of RE Drift art project, in response to the experience of place; specifically the intellectual and emotional engagement with Hodbarrow a site formerly dominated by industrial iron ore extraction and situated in Millom, South West Cumbria. The ironworks closed during 1968, the site has largely been reclaimed by nature. It is now the location of an RSPB sanctuary and nature reserve.

The research and art installations explore the environment and industrial heritage in diverse ways. Philip Green, local photographer was invited by Irene to reflect on the landscapes visible from Hodbarrow. These are landscapes in which it is possible to trace human settlement back over thousands of years to Mesolithic period and in which ways of living are subject to an ongoing process of adapting.

Works include ‘The Bloody Cranesbill’ inspired by Norman Nicholson’s poetry of the same title. ‘Between Vapour and Brine’, is a series of water collections and microscopy and ‘Flaming Fleeces’ in response to present-day agriculture. Irene invited Adam Day of The Farmer Network, Cumbria to discuss current issues and why fleeces are being burned (see information on back pages).

Photo: Philip Green RSPB Hodbarrow

Red Road Restoration 2

Photo: Irene Rogan Redhills Quarry, Millom

Above: Redhills Quarry now a haven for wildlife, untouched as mainly inaccessible Left: entrance to RSPB Hodbarrow strewn with pools of haematite-infused waters

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Photo: Irene Rogan Redhills - One of the ‘Slaggies’, Mainsgate Road, Millom

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Photo: Philip Green A quarry face, RSPB Hodbarrow, with shrub clinging on to the surface. On reading Nicholson’s poem ‘The Bloody Cranesbill’ it spoke to me of the enduring natural environment, as plants and wildlife are return the site.

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Photo: Philip Green First of created a series of environmental installations by Irene which include fleeces, it began as part of research exploring the industrial heritage of the area from as far back as Mesolithic era to present day farming.

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Photo: Philip Green Towsey Hole Drift Mine, Haverigg Point, Millom

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Photo: Irene Rogan TOWSEY HOLE DRIFT MINE INTERIOR TOWSEY HOLE DRIFT MINE A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is above water level and generally on the slope of a hill, driven horizontally into the ore seam. .

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Photo: Philip Green RSPB Hodbarrow 10

Photo: Philip Green RSPB Hodbarrow 11

Photo: Philip Green RSPB Hodbarrow

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Photo: Philip Green RSPB Hodbarrow

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Photos: Philip Green of Installation by Irene Rogan at White Rock, Millom

The Flaming Fleeces installation is an exploration of the industrial heritage of the area, an area populated since the Mesolithic era to present day agricultural industry.

Today fleeces are being burned and buried because no longer saleable in the UK, this work explores loss and the waste of a sustainable, organic material.

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Photo: Irene Rogan, White Rock, Millom 16

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Photo: Philip Green of The Flaming Fleeces Installation by Irene Rogan 18

Placing raw fleeces poring out of an old outlet pipe remnants from the industrial past became a symbolic gesture of loss, of waste of valuable and organic material of fleeces 19

Photos: Philip Green: Flaming Fleeces installation by Irene Rogan at White Rock, Millom

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Photo: Irene Rogan Flaming Fleeces installation at Haverigg Point, Millom

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Flaming Fleeces Installation

Irene Rogan burning the fleeces at Haverigg Point.

Photo: Philip Green 23

Photo: Irene Rogan 24

‘Flaming Fleeces’ installation in response to the news of farmers burning or burying fleeces unable to sell them in the UK - this is an alarm, a signal to all of us.

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Water Co An exploration of Cumbrian coastal through water collections, m

Photo Irene Rogan: White Rock, Millom, Cumbria from a kayak on a water collection trip 26

ollections edges around Millom and Haverigg microscopy and photography

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Between Vapour and Brine

PLANKTON ‘But inches below

The enveloping film Between brine and vapour The lesser energies Explode into self-propulsion Single cells Developing fins Tentacles, tails; A tiny octopus Rayed like the sun That moves as the sun can’t’ Extract from ‘Plankton’ by Norman Nicholson from the Shadow of Black Combe 1978

Photo by Anonymous passers-by of Irene in her kayak heading to make water collections

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Photo Irene Rogan Microscope and water collection 29

Photos and microscopy : Irene Rogan The Inner Barrier Hodbarrow water collection 30

Photo: Philip Green

Photos: Irene Rogan Haverigg Point water collections 31

Credits Photos: Philip Green and Irene Rogan Texts , titles and cover Irene Rogan Special Introduction by Paul Wilson

VISIT www.irenerogan.co.uk/restoration to view the video of her live installation ‘Flaming Fleeces’

and to listen to the Adam Day interview concerning fleeces, wool and farming today www.redrift.net To see all participating artists and their work

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO Beckside Farm, Whicham Valley and Lowscales Farm Millom Jem Freiesleben, Duane Farren

The Freshwater Biological Association, Richard Scott - Salt Marsh Ecologist Contact : irenerogan@gmail.com 32

RESTORATION

THE BLOODY CRANESBILL A barren slack of clay is slurried and scaled-out over All that living fracas of top-soil and rock. A town's Purpose subsides with the mine; my father and my Uncle Jim Lie a quarter of a century dead; but out on its stubborn skerry, In a lagoon of despoliation, that same flower.

Still grows today.

The Bloody Cranesbill Norman Nicholson

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Irene Rogan and Philip Green inside the Towsey Mine 34