Oscar Wilkinson - BA (Hons) Photography
54.3701°N, 3.1199°W
Oscar Wilkinson’s ongoing project ‘54.3701°N, 3.1199°W’ explores the physicality of prints, through analogue processes and combining found objects with image. Through documentation of the mining industry and other derelict structures lost to the natural world, the work’s intention is to immerse us in the scene, forcing an interaction with the physical history of these locations. Emphasis is put on the ecological succession of the mines, nature reclaiming the landscape, and burying its rich history. After interviewing an ex-miner, claustrophobia and disorientation were repeatedly broached; the project approaches these feelings, and mimics them in an attempt to connect us in a similar way. Scale, composition, and incorporating found objects into the degree show, document the reality of the dangers the industry carried using these mimicked feelings; this emphasising the lack of conservation despite the lives lost.
After thorough experimentation with liquid emulsion and polaroid lifts, hydrographic printing finalised the project's development, this process enabling the transfer of high quality prints onto slate found in the Coniston slate mines. With the installation's intention being to immerse the viewer as well as connect us with lost history, the slate print is mounted atop a slate deposit, this representing the project as whole as well as the discarded nature of whats been left behind.
