FACTS
| Wig Sayell graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1995, and completed her MA Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art in 2000.
She chose Cardiff as a base to explore and be inspired by the South Wales Valleys.
Mardy Colliery was opened by the Rhymney Iron Company in 1862.
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 |  | Profile by artist, Wig Sayell
I grew up in Leamington and went to the Trinity School, then studied at Warkwickshire College from 1990 - 1991. Although I no longer live in the area, I exhibited at the Warks Museum in 1997 with the show 'An Gorta Mor - The Great Hunger'.
I am a lecturer in Photography and History of art and Design and based in Essex, though I work part-time to be able to pursue new projects.
Although I am unlikely to ever return to Leamington, it seems to be a fantastic part of the country for 'springboarding' people far and away!
I think this is also due to the philosophy and ethos of the Trinity School that I attended, which encouraged and celebrated independence and freethinking.
Wasteground 2000
Through investigating and travelling to various parts of Britain and Ireland, there's always been extensive research using ordnance survey maps and historical and tourist information to create various bodies of work.
A sense of place has always been, and will continue to be, an essential part of my work and an immediate influence.
| Μύ |  | The demolished colliery site is still used as a place of recreation
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'Wasteground 2000' was a diptych video installation, titled as a response to the site of Mardy Colliery definition on the Ordnance Survey map regarding its status as a spoil heap, refuse tip or dump.
In spite of these negative connotations, an indication of an industry which had been virtually demolished and not replaced by other forms of employment, the site has continued to be used by local people as a place to ride bikes, horses and walk dogs.
The work was formed on the basis of a chance meeting with a Mardy ex-miner, who was showing his young children around the site of the pit.
The guided tour was recorded and transcribed, creating an obscure narrative in which the viewer is aware of the history and events of a site, and yet the pit remains on the video have virtually all disappeared.
Remember chalk on blackboards in school
| Μύ |  | Pit canteen tiles used to draw out school memories
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As a performance piece, and one half of the video installation, the text was rhythmically written onto the pit canteen tiles with white chalk, where references could be drawn from learning from memory, such as a school teacher writing on a blackboard.
This was accompanied by a wildtrack of the colliery site: birds singing, aeroplanes, and the scratching of the chalk.
The other half of the video installation was the view from a video camera which had been set up to monitor and survey the colliery from above.
The intention was to show the site as a wasteground returning to nature, and as a place of leisure.
As people were curious to see what I was doing, our conversations were recorded on the other video, and these interactions and sounds would sometimes correspond or clash with the other video projection.
Watch the film
To see one of Wig's films go to the Watch and Listen section on the left.
There we have the film Oakdale Workmen's Institute Returns to its Original Site Away from the Museum of Welsh Life (and Back Again) by Wig Sayell.
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