We are delighted to invite you to the launch of Libita Sibungu’s new work Deep Recovery at Kresen Kernow. The launch event will include an introductory talk by Geologist Dr Beth Simons and a poetic response by the artist, followed by conversation. Refreshments will be available. Please book here to secure your place. 

 

About the event

Deep Recovery (2023) is a sonic fragment comprising a sound work and small risograph publication housed in a bespoke archival box fabricated by Rhea Evers. The work is designed to be sited in archival spaces and experienced as an intimate act of listening. 

Responding to a research visit to the British Geological Survey archives in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, as well as the narratives told about granite in the artist’s home of West Cornwall, Sibungu’s work questions the colonial logic of archiving: what is determined worth storing, what becomes erased, and whose perspectives are valued. Deep Recovery plays with the form of an archival object whilst existing as an unruly sonic fragment, a trace of embodied knowledge. 

The work was developed through a series of workshops led by the artist together with a group of mixed heritage women artists* living in West Cornwall, walking in the granite-rich landscape, visiting sites of geological significance, and making field recordings, before later translating these embodied experiences to language, improvisation and collective reflection. The resulting sound work includes excerpts of these field recordings alongside poetic scripts written by the artist and performed by the women involved. 

Acting as a counter narrative to the stories told of the permanence, solidity and endurance of the granite landscape, and its connection to a particular idea of Britishness, Deep Recovery instead invites us to see the impermanence of geological forms: the mineral rich veins and cracks which weave quartz and black tourmaline through the granite landscape, and the nature of the granite itself as coming from the sea, destined to erode. Alongside the fluidity which characterises the landscape is a renewed understanding of who belongs to the land, and how our own stories attach to our environments. 

*Vocal contributions by the unruly artists, singers, writers, healers, mothers: Maria Christoforidou, Caroline Deeds, Catherine Lucktaylor and Angeline Morrison.  

 

Deep Recovery will be at Kresen Kernow until Saturday 16 December 2023, and will be available during the centre’s usual opening hours (Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday, 9.30-4.00). Please ask to access it at reception.

Deep Recovery was commissioned by ourselves and was produced with support from Liz Howell. Sound was produced by SJ Blackmore at Cling Clack Studios.

About Kresen Kernow

Kresen Kernow (‘Cornwall Centre’) is home to the world’s largest collection of documents, books, maps and photographs related to Cornwall’s history. Everyone is welcome to visit and explore these amazing collections for free.

Kresen Kernow is a state-of-the-art archive centre built in the shell of the former Redruth Brewery. As well as 14 miles of shelving to store over 1.5 million of Cornwall’s treasured archives, the centre has exhibition spaces, learning rooms, a preservation studio and a digitisation suite. Visitors can carry out research, pop in and browse the library and exhibitions, or take part in our varied activity programme featuring creative workshops, courses and fun family events. Kresen Kernow is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 9.30-4.00. Find out more about visiting Kresen Kernow.