Graffiti. Is it bad? Is it good? Is graffiti even a 'thing'.
Is it destruction? Is it art? Does it have meaning and function beyond the
immediate act? Beyond the paint dubs and scratches on the wall? Is it something
we should treasure, or something that should be obliterated from the walls
without thinking, in the same way we would brush away, without thought or
contemplation, a cobweb in a dusty corner? What is its point and, in these less
than simple, less than easy, times - does it have any true meaning and impact
in the modern world. Can it influence, for good or ill, the modern world of
hate and destruction, and those of us who inhabit it? Well, today some of those
questions were answered for me. Not all, but some - and in a place where I
certainly didn't expect to find any such answers.
Creswell Craggs is one of England's hidden gems, that far
too few people know about, and far too few people visit. I guess the clue is in
the term 'hidden'. Visually the site is simply stunning, and totally
unexpected. After driving through a landscape that still echoes an invasive a
destructive industrial past of coalfields and massive piles of mining waste you
almost stumble upon the place. Today it is a wooded limestone gorge or ravine, complete
with picturesque lake, criss-crossed with enticing paths and picnic areas. In
anyone's book the site would be worth visiting simply for its beauty. However,
what makes Creswell Craggs so very, very special is the fact that the rock
walls of the ravine are lined with caves - caves that were once home to the
early inhabitants of this island - at a time when it wasn't even really an
island at all. And here those early peoples left their mark. They left their
mark in the archaeology of the site, and upon the walls of the caves themselves
- England's only examples known to date of prehistoric cave art. England's
earliest graffiti.
And yet my visit today wasn't centred upon the caves and
their thousands of year old etchings, Nope. Instead I found myself spending my
time in the rather lovely visitor centre located at one end of the ravine. I
could have spent my time looking at the exhibition of the archaeology of the
site (truly fascinating), or happily wiled away an hour or two in the gift shop
or rather stunning little cafe. However, today marked a very special event, and
I was there to join in a celebration. Today marked the end of the first stage
of the surveys being carried out by the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Medieval
Graffiti Survey (DNMGS), and I was there at the invitation of project
coordinator, Matt Beresford, to talk about the medieval graffiti that the
volunteers had recorded so far. It was fun. It was informative. We all seemed
to enjoy ourselves, and the results were most certainly impressive. However,
the bit of my day that really made an un-looked for impression was the ten
minutes I spent in the gallery area on the ground floor.
When Matt Beresford set up the trial project I supplied him
with a letter of support, and we discussed how the project would work, what
were the aims and aspirations, and what he hoped that everyone would take away
from it? All fairly standard stuff really. However, I don't mind admitting that
I was somewhat surprised by one aspect of the project that Matt was keen to
pursue. As well as the archaeological training and recording at historic sites,
Matt also wanted to run an integral art project. His aim was to get the
volunteers to work with an artist to create works of art inspired by their
findings. Inspired by the medieval graffiti.
If I'm honest I was more than a little surprised by this
part of the project. I was in fact dubious in the extreme. It seemed a waste of
time to me. A wee bit nuts. What could the volunteers gain from this? What
insights and understandings would it give them? What could 'modern' art take
from something that I've spent several years arguing isn't in any way an art
form, but rather a social history record of faith and belief? However, it was
Matt Beresford's project, so who was I to say what he did with it? He could
have the volunteers expressing their emotional reaction to the graffiti in the
medium of contemporary dance if he so wished. It was his baby after all.
Well, I was wrong. Very wrong indeed. And it only took those
ten minutes wandering along the gallery at Creswell Craggs, where the fruits of
their many months of labour are on display, to realise just how wrong I
actually was.
I'm not going to spoil it for you, or start talking about
the way I actually felt a new connection to a lot of very familiar motifs - old
friends I've seen carved into many a stone. Each artwork speaks for itself, as
they were intended to. Each piece connects the present with the past, the
ancients symbols and motifs finding new meaning in a very modern setting. Every
single one, with their short descriptive text, showing me that the act of
creating these artworks has indeed spawned new ideas and understandings.
Instead I'd simply suggest you go and see for yourselves. Go and discover what
medieval graffiti can be translated to in the modern world, at the home of
England's oldest artwork.
The exhibition is only on for a few short weeks more, but if
you do visit, tell them that Matt and Matt sent you - and don't forget to try
the cafe...
You can also read more about the DNMGS survey here - https://dnmgs.wordpress.com/about/
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