The video installation, Playing the Cave, took its cue from the increase in rainfall due to climate change in the Lake District. Loosely based on the notion of a ‘stop the rain-dance’, it acts as a playful evocation of ancient rituals, myth and man’s - often futile - desire to gain control over nature.

Shot in the mouth of a disused mine during heavy rainfall, the video work rejects an understanding of landscape through traditional representation by going below the surface and looking at the tunnels left behind from one of the most actively mined areas in the United Kingdom.

The trancelike, rhythmic and tribal soundtrack is composed of individual raindrops recorded inside the cave with the help of experimental recording techniques. Each beat triggers a new image. Fractured experience becomes a means of subjugating content to image, image to sound and sound to chance.

The video was developed in collaboration with the Cumbria Museum Consortium and funded through a New Expressions Commission: an Arts Council England National pathfinder programme that fosters collaboration between contemporary artists and museums.

Click here to view the video work