Capel Twnel

Charcoal on crumbling plaster on the wall of Capel Bethel, Cwmrheidol. This drawing is work in progress, and also involves an animated film of its progress. Capel Bethel was built to accommodate the influx of Cornish miners to the area in the nineteenth century. It was stripped in the eighties soon after deconsecration, but the ghostly shadow of the pulpit still shows on this east wall, and forms the mouth of this tunnel. Extrapolated from photographs taken down mines in Ystumpteun, Cwmystwyth and Cwmrheidol, this drawing has a way to go. The plan is to mount a public exhibition here in collaboration with local mining historian Ioan Lord, author of 'Rich Mountains of Lead' and his found objects from underground.