Residency film
Bentonite clay, copper - March 2019
V&A Engaging Ceramics residency

This is not a place for you.
This place is not a place of honour.
No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.
Nothing valued is here. What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us.
Pay attention. We are serious. Sending this message was significant for us. Ours was considered an important culture.
We are going to tell you what lies underground, why you should not disturb this place and what might happen if you do.

Excerpt from ‘Underland’ Author Robert Macfarlane, chapter 12 - The Hiding Place.

In a number of countries, bentonite clays are being considered as the potential buffer for the geological disposal of radioactive waste. Repositories such as these will finally lay to rest thousands of copper cannisters, filled with spent Uranium fuel rods, 500 metres underground. The rods will remain radioactive for up to 100,000 years. Impossible to grasp the concept of deep time, this installation attempts to make tangible the scale and engineering of this process.