Mining the Gold Stope c. 1940

John Charles Haley made this print, Mining the Gold Stope, using subtle but industrious marks of graphite, each line an effort. I can almost see him in his studio, bent over the paper, shading in the figures with intense concentration. The composition is fascinating, how the figures are squeezed into the architecture of the mine. Do you think the artist felt claustrophobic as he made it? I wonder if that's why he left the background blank. It's as if he couldn't bear to fill in all the space. Haley's got these three miners, each caught in a moment of labour, all hard angles and focused intention, so I am really feeling the sense of working class solidarity. The figures are solid, grounded in their labour, but the overall impression is a feeling of floating. It's a reminder that art can be a kind of alchemy, turning the everyday into something precious and strange, much like mining itself.