Say, did you see him walking? 

it was early this morning 

He passed by your house on his way to the coal 

He was tall, he was slender, 

and his blue eyes so tender 

His occupation was miner, 

West Virginia his home 

It was just about noon, I was feeding the children 

Ben Moseley come running for to give us the news 

Number eight is all flooded, 

many men are in danger, 

And we don’t know their number, 

but we fear they’re all doomed

So I picked up the baby and I left all the others 

For to comfort each other and pray for our own 

There’s Timmy, fourteen, 

and there’s John not much younger, 

Soon their own time will be coming 

to go down the black hole 

Now if I had the money to do more than just feed them 

I’d give them good learning, the best could be found 

And when they grew up 

they’d be checkers and weighers 

And not spend their life drilling in the dark underground 

And it’s what will I tell to my three little children? 

And what will I tell his dear mother at home? 

And it’s what will I tell to my poor heart that’s dying? 

My heart that’s surely dying since my darling is gone 

Say, did you see him walking? 

it was early this morning 

He passed by your house on his way to the coal 

He was tall, he was slender, 

and his blue eyes so tender 

His occupation was miner, West Virginia his home 

-Jean Ritchie, West Virginia Mine Disaster

The history-based paintings of Ali Printz sourced from unnamed miners in various found photographs spanning almost a hundred year period and from various states within Appalachia, demand attention as their vintage mining lights flicker on and off. Each mining light was once active on the helmet of an unknown miner, acquired over the last several years from auctions and antique shops. Printz seeks to give agency to the forgotten miners—perhaps victims of their own mining disasters over the years—by replicating their images and creating a “story” through paint and objects. The chosen monochromatic palette of each miner is swathed from noxious mine runoff and chemicals, produced throughout the coal refinement process and often dumped in rivers and streams. Deep purple, a color harvested from a process of refining carbon-based residue and used as a dye for clothing, the rust red-orange of slag, and the neon green of radioactive waste from coal used in nuclear power dominate in varying monochromatic colors in each portrait. The brilliance of the colors reflect beauty, but also the pollution of mind, body, and soul through extraction. The paintings become caretakers of memory and history, yet project the truth of the present, as the horrors of environmental labor continue indefinitely in this moment, complementing the initial environment created by Roby-Tomic. The untold stories of the photographs, the mining lights, and the created portraits from these objects reflect the replaceable nature of extraction and its workers, lost to history.

The exhibition is meant to disorient and mimic the interior of a coal mine, surrounded by dark walls, ceiling, and floors. The video game loop created by Williams-Roby mimics the interior of the Sago Mine in collapse, in darkness, confusion, and hypnagogic dissociation. The bodies of miners are replaced by those of ants, degraded and expendable. Surrounding the video flanked by two walls, are six portraits of anonymous miners, painted in monochromatic colors that mimic the stages of coal production through processing and runoff. Vintage mining lights that were once active on miners’ helmets are once again active and functional, mounted within the paintings, flickering on and off and creating an even more disorienting viewpoint. 

The viewer is invited into not only a historically significant mining disaster, butalso an everyday reality for miners throughout Appalachia, as Trump continues to pushfor “clean coal’ and the deregulations of Obama era environmental laws. Through thisoften hard to experience installation, performance, and workshop series, perhaps theplight of Appalachia can be thoroughly addressed as well as its contributions toAmerican culture and labor history, lessening the stereotypes of the in favor of empathyand action.