Futility is the way home

Walking The Miners Way Trail on Saturday 5th August

This performance piece will involve walking the 27mile Miners Way route in Dover district. I will be carrying 10kg of coal and shall endeavour to complete the trail in a single day. 

Meeting 21st-century challenges with 19th-century answers.

The work will comment on the ever growing feeling of futility in the fight against climate change. Some younger generations have expressed a feeling of pre-traumatic stress disorder at the inaction of society to tackle global warming. These mines closed 28 years ago, yet the industry they created has still not been replaced with greener technologies, sustainable energy or sustainable employment. This work will talk about that feeling, drawing on the inadequacy of action to create change, by pushing myself to walk with the burdens of our modern society on my back.

Home

The performance will start in Wingham, at the home I grew up in, and follow the route counter-clockwise, until I end up at the start, at home.

The walk will take approximately 9 hours:

Wingham - 8am

Goodnestone - 8:45

Aylesham - 9:30

Nonington - 10:00

Frogham - 10:30

Sheperdswell - 11:00

Elvington - 11:30

Tilmanstone - 12:30

Northbourne - 1pm

Eastry - 2:30

Hammil Foundry - 3:00

Ash - 3:45

Staple - 4:15

Wingham - 5pm

I invite you to see the performance and walk with me, if only for a few steps, in moving forward.