Black Stone Burns

This work is part of a collective exhibition The Open Veins curated by Vítor Nieves.

Black Stone Burns

According to the International Energy Agency 2021 report, coal accounted for over 40% of the overall growth in global CO2 emissions in 2021. Often mistaken for a dirty fuel of the past, its extraction and use are again on the rise, with 432 new mines planned globally. Traceable throughout coal’s history is the devastating tableaux of towns left struggling in its wake. When all the precious black stones have been extracted from the ground, and the hard labour extracted from the local community, what remains is more than the sum of the scars on the land. Using three visual narratives, Black Stone Burns weaves together the complex stories of the people and communities whose lives have been inextricably shaped and moulded by coal. Made over four years across three continents and five countries, the project starts from intimate family stories and pictures from my hometown of Belchatow in Poland. We then move across the Atlantic to the lost American dreams of Appalachian coal mining towns in the USA, where images of dioramas are coupled with the stark reality of rampant extractivist capitalism. The visual strategies behind the continued promotion of coal are investigated through an analysis of the UK’s history with the black stone, as archival advertisements are juxtaposed with the current commercials that greenwash the country’s fraught history with coal and poverty. Finally, we travel to the vast coal mines of China and the environmental degradation caused by such large-scale extraction. Questioning the relationship between the tangled web of neoliberalism, coal, and capitalism, and the role photography plays within it, Black Stone Burns explores the visual strategies which have been directly used by capitalism to sell, expand and accumulate wealth through its willingness to exploit and commodify the natural world.

SOMA — Plataforma Cultural
Rua Capitão Alberto de Matos 4, 4700-211 Braga

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