Unearthed

I have made two new films as part of a commission for Surrey Unearthed - a programme of ten linked art projects celebrating the Surrey Hills. https://www.surreyunearthed.org Persistent Place and Whole are two experimental art documentaries that unearth the endeavours of the people who work in the sandpits of the Surrey Hills. Persistent Place (16 mins 30 secs) weaves together generations of work at North Park Quarry, including the Mesolithic hunters who struck flints here, the archaeologists who painstakingly document them and the commitment of the machine operators who move the sand. Whole (13 mins 30 secs) reflects the repetitive processes of sand extraction to draw attention to the pride and beauty within the industrial workplace at Moorhouse Sandpits. Touching on our own relationship to the extracted material, Whole considers the imaginative potential of this site. about the geology and archaeology of these persistent places of work. The film playfully explores our relationship to tools, from the Mesolithic hunters who struck flints here, to the machine operators’ love for their 40 tonne excavators. Non-linear video editing techniques are used to reflect the repetitive processes of sand extraction and to draw attention to the beauty within these industrial workplaces. Touching on our relationship to the extracted materials, Unearthed considers the dispersal of the Surrey Hills and the imaginative potential of the sandpits.