Passage To The Past, Masters Shop, Gang Mines 2022 (Part of the series Lie of the Land)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

These closely connected images – a portrait, still life and landscape – are part the The Lie of the Land series, in which Coates ‘explores the social history of the land, narrating a story of gender and class that has long been forgotten – or simply never told’ about the countryside of the North East of England. The images were produced during a year-long collaboration between the artist and twelve women living and working in rural or agricultural settings – and who identify as working class. Through conversations, walks, photography and written reflections, Coates developed highly personal expanded portraits of each woman, free of the romanticism so often associated with contemporary rural England. Passage to the Past, Masters Shop, Gang Mines frames the ‘spoil heaps, structures, shafts’ that ‘stand as visual metaphors, markers and passages to the past, hinting at one of the earliest examples of the human touch on a poisoned landscape’ while speaking to the ‘interconnected relationship between economics, consumption, and social capital’ embedded within local topography. Alongside this, Lynn, Miner’s Wife, Activist, Organiser, is a portrait of Lynn from Swaledale, a local campaigner, former pharmacist, mother, painter, and brass player – the last of these explaining her choice of the trumpet shown in Lynn’s object, Brass. This image brings a sonic element to the trio of works and links them to the rural colliery bands that were initially founded to celebrate the extension of the vote to working farm labourers, but are today heard mainly at agricultural shows and colliery reunions.

Joanne Coates is a working-class visual artist working within the medium of photography. She lives and works across the North East of England. Her work explores rurality, hidden histories, and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations and audio, which she uses to question stories around power, identity, wealth and poverty. She was first educated in working-class communities and then at London College of Communication. Participation and working with communities remain an important aspect of her work. In 2022, Coates was the winner of the Jerwood/Photoworks Award and has since exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. Her work is often shown in site-specific contexts in rural areas. Coates’ work is in the permanent collection of MIMA. She has completed editorial commissions for major UK publications including Bloomberg, Vice, The Telegraph, The Financial Times, BBC, Insider and The Guardian. She is also Director of Roova Arts, which campaigns for class equality in creative industries through school programmes and mentorships.

Places

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

Artist

Joanne Coates

Title

Passage To The Past, Masters Shop, Gang Mines 2022 (Part of the series Lie of the Land)

Date

2022

Dimensions

height: 101.6cm width: 127cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist, March 2024, Art XUK project 2023-24

Provenance

The Artist; from whom purchased by the UK Government Art Collection, 22 March 2024

GAC number

19289