Secrecy, Speculation, Superstition

“When I returned to partial life my face was wet with tears. How long that state of insensibility had lasted I cannot say. I had no means now of taking account of time. Never was solitude equal to this, never had any living being been so utterly forsaken.”
― Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth

 

To the Williamson Tunnels https://twitter.com/wmsontunnels last night for the opening of Clandestine – the latest exhibition by the Not Just Collective https://twitter.com/NotJust_ - the tunnels are the perfect venue for this exhibition, and with the heavy rain that fell on Liverpool the night before still seeping through the sandstone, the atmosphere became even more mysterious, if not downright creepy.

After descended into the first of the vast caverns and crossing the scaffolding platform you first come to Nicola Roscoe-Calvert's "Wilweorthunga" a thought provoking piece which links the unemployment of today back through the years to the hardships endured by the people who dug these tunnels in the 19th century.

 

Climbing the steps we next come to Andy Johnson's "Our Dads Year" another piece reaching back through the years and connecting to the original men who laboured deep below ground here.  Next the tunnel narrows and we brush the hand-carved sandstone, and avoiding the drips of water seeping though cast our eyes upward to the messages of India Cawley-Gelling's "And Daddy goes Back to Ireland" soaring overhead.

 

 

 

Pieces by Becky Peach "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" and "Crashing Under Waves" by Thomas Ross line the rock walls as we venture further into the labyrinth, the natural bedrock of the city now gives way to concrete, as a seemingly Cold War shelter of a cross corridor links to the next tunnel.  Here the walls are home to Barbara Harrison's "Labour" and then the atmospheric faces "Set in Stone", "Breaking Through" and "Haunting" by Gosia Smolenska appeared to be emerging from the walls, and I didn't look back to check whether they had or not!

 

 

The confined space of the corridor opens out into another huge cave where pieces from this exhibition rub shoulders with permanent artifacts salvaged from the tunnels' excavations over the years. Amongst these are Catherine Harrison's "Black Mass" and "Simulacrum" lending a pagan flavour to the mystery of our environment.

 

Echoing the almost cave like setting, the animal remains of Barrett & Cribley's "Still Life (with Skull) II" take on a sacrificial composition, an effect heightened by the hushed voices permeating from the next tunnel.  Graham Rimmer's "The Trinity" stand sentinel as we are drawn to the sounds which lie beyond the timber bulkhead, but first the mood is lightened a little as Wendy Williams' "Trailers" pause from their Lilliputian adventures amongst an underground terrace deep in the underground world that Williamson has left us.

 

 

 

Making our way to the lobby and then underneath the space we had just left - the tunnels are complicated like that - we took our seats for two performances, Tom George https://twitter.com/tomgeorgearts sang for us and Andy Johnson http://twitter.com/andyoutnabout captivated the audience with a tale of Dragons, Knights, and some cunning Scouse landgrabbing...

 

Clandestine is a further exploration of the Not Just Collective's diverse range of artists, and shows there is much more to be discovered leading up to and beyond next year's return of Biennial http://twitter.com/Biennial

 

Clandestine runs until 27^th October and can be accessed via the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre, Smithdown Lane, Liverpool L7 3EE
https://www.facebook.com/NotJustCollective