Iain Bolton and Jim Donnelly

Emerging From Obscurity

‘Emerging from Obscurity’ is a projection of my photos, set to music by Jim Donnelly, that depicts the unseen glamour of the post-industrial communities in which I live in the North East of England.
My images are all taken on my travels around, and beyond, my local town of Ashington, recognised as one of the most densely populated towns in Northumberland (Critchlow 2018) and with some of the highest levels unemployment in the county, following the collapse of the mining industry.

I use my images to challenge local and national perceptions of my locality, to show the beauty I have learned to see, and most others choose to ignore or avoid, in a region that is struggling to emerge from years of socio-political strife and neglect.

The title also references my development as an artist over the last ten years, despite all the odds: from a mining village, refused access to the local art college by my parents, and leaving school with one O Level –Art. In 2014 I decided to rent an art studio and began making art.

My projection was planned for the outdoors, as these are images from outdoors. I needed a venue in post industrial Northumberland, and I needed music. I couldn’t do this alone.

Beauty is the defiance of authority. (Williams, 2021).