Disaggregate
Artist Amanda Loomes explores Reigate Caves with Paul Sowan from the Surrey Industrial History Group
Unearthed
Unearthed
By Amanda Loomes
Unearthed is an experimental digital project that brings to light the people who work in the sandpits of the Surrey Hills, people who sometimes slip through the fingers of history.
Focusing on two working quarries near Bletchingly and Oxted, Amanda extracted information about the geology and archaeology of these persistent places of work. She created two digital documentaries, Whole and Persistent Place that playfully explore 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 were 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.
Unearthed was made with the help of Moorhouse Sandpits (Titsey Estate), North Park Quarry (Sibelco UK), Surrey County Archaeological Unit and Surrey Industrial History Group. With grateful thanks to everyone who took part in the making of the film:
Related events + media
The Moth Effect
Watch a short clip by artist Amanda Loomes from the making of Unearthed, filmed in the sandpits of the Surrey Hills
Amanda Loomes
Amanda Loomes works with the experimental documentary form, imbuing materials and places with the abstracted stories and personalities of the people they where made by. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2006. Selected recent exhibitions and commissions include: Jerwood Open Forest, Jerwood Space London (2014); HOUSE 2015, Regency Town House Brighton (co-commissioned by Photoworks); Keepers, National Trust Lyme (2016); and Spiky Black (in collaboration with Alison Carlier), Metal Southend (2017).
www.amandaloomes.net