Trigger warnings: The Mine contains content users may find sensitive or distressing, reflecting accounts of physical, emotional, systemic, and medical neglect and abuse towards disabled people. We encourage users to be aware of this when experiencing the artwork.

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Read Jay's artist profile Find out more about the Adam Reynolds Award

The thing about justice that Jay gets instinctively is that if one of us doesn't have it then none of us does; their comradely call to arms is timely - if not now then when?

- Jon Sharples

The Mine by Jay Price is a major new artwork available as an interactive game, audiobook, and film. Immersing the user in the derelict, underground venue of ‘the mine,’ a disused space found underneath (and locked out of) the art gallery upstairs, the work details historical and contemporary examples of the structural marginalisation of disabled communities. From faeries as scapegoats, to forced sterilisation, right up to the ongoing pandemic, The Mine is a visceral unravelling of ableist social tropes, human rights violations, and grassroots resistance. 

The Mine builds on Price’s existing corpus of work shining a light on the marginalisation of disabled people in society today. In 2021, Price’s work Canaries was commissioned as part of the Adam Reynolds Award shortlist exhibition, Empty When Full and they went on to receive the 2022 Adam Reynolds Award itself, which provides a £10k bursary and a creative residency opportunity to a mid-career disabled artist.

Incorporated into The Mine are full foley sound design, traditional stained glass work, and metal work in the form of brass sculptures from which, through the use of wax rubbing sticks, users are able to uncover and download an artwork of their own (see below).

Continuing Shape Arts’ innovation around accessibility and digital delivery, The Mine is the latest in a series of collaborations with Hot Knife Digital Media. The work will be publicly available for free through the App Store and Google Play Store from 10 November, with the audiobook and filmed experience released online simultaneously. 

Testimonials

Jon Sharples, Associate, Canvas Art Law, said: “Jay works in the important tradition of artists who take something horrific and force us not to avert our gaze. In this worrying time of one right wing government after another, The Mine literally shines a light on the too-easily-forgotten ableist atrocities of the 20th century - part of our collective recent past, rather than some distant ancient history - and stands as a monument to the human cost of our society that continues to fall woefully short in its inequitable treatment of people with impairments of all kinds. The thing about justice that Jay gets instinctively is that if one of us doesn't have it then none of us does; their comradely call to arms is timely - if not now then when?”

Stacie McCormick, Director, Unit 1 Gallery, Founder, Fair Art Fair, said: “I am super impressed with The Mine, though not surprised. Jay’s approached this incredible project with their characteristic integrity and I love the decision to utilise a game to inform and expose the nature of bias against individuals labelled as disabled both historically (shockingly violent) as well as the current need to further efforts of inclusivity and understanding. I love the dark basement, the sounds of the gallery above providing the player the experience of being locked out and unseen. Jay’s cunning use of a game to subvert and educate has been delivered intelligently and successfully. I look forward to exploring the further formats and to this work being seen and understood widely.”

Credits and Acknowledgements

The Mine was creatively produced in collaboration with Shape Arts and Hot Knife Digital Media.

The Adam Reynolds Award programme is generously funded by Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation.

Jay would also like to thank...

"A huge thank you to every amazing person involved in this project.

Produced by Shape Arts (Jeff Rowlings, Elinor Hayes, and Emily Roderick)

Created by Hot Knife Digital Media Ltd. (Andrew, Dean, and Amy)

Stained glass expert, Eleanor Bird

Foley and soundscape designer, Nicolas Faris

Technical instructor in computaional arts (photoshop scene creation, Cinema 4D support and more) Michael Faulkner

Photoshop image editing, Jack Felgate

BSL interpretation, Ruaridh Lever-Hogg and Lucy Clark"

Tell us what you thought of The Mine

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Banner image description: In-game screenshot, perspective limited by the reach of the torchlight being used by the character. The circle of available light picks out a rickety wooden staircase, cordoned off at the bottom so that no one from downstairs can go up. There is a sign hanging on the cordon that reads, 'no entry to the gallery.'