Some animal pasts remembered – with others still disregarded
Chopwell – a radical past
This year’s Durham miners gala displayed many banners.Free from the rain of 2024 many were shown in different ways. While the Chopwell had been presented many times before recently it was now just led by children wearing their own T shirts depicting the clear politics!
Not simply gone
Elsewhere , with a wording ironically relevant to current political times was the Seaham Lodge. It presented the former coalfield but alongside the appropriate wording. That is the past should not be ‘forgotten’ particularly when radical politics are hardly part of ‘history’ nowadays.
An animal-human relationship
Arising from the last gala I previously mentioned the visual image of Flack, the last pit pony to work in a British coal mine, ‘retired’, like other animals in 1994, & displayed in a poster. But now clearly presented on a Bearpark lodge banner was an image of a former horse alongside the men who also worked there. While such a situation was very difficult for horses in the pits, it seems here the joint animal – human activity was being clearly remembered – and now historically displayed.
Humans’ personal representation …
The miners’ approach to positively remembering earlier times has not been widespread.In the recent Royal Academy Summer exhibition, artists Zatorski & Zatorski explained ‘ we are exhibiting the artwork “1” (comprising 101 rats) we are creating a limited edition “The One”’. These were presented as “White rat pelt, lined with 24 ct gold”. As one website noted “It instantly made me think about animal testing, and about the extremes people will go to, for riches…” The artists achieved much publicity and these dead animals were apparently giving the artists £85,000. Seems somewhat different to visually remembering men of earlier times trying to support horses …
Leave a Reply