Teän Roberts (Hold Fast) - The Pits, 2026

THE PITS, 2026

Digital giclée photographic print on 310gsm cotton rag archival paper

During kelping’s peak, there were said to be over 100 pit-kilns burning seaweed across the islands. This demand began with the Industrial Revolution, when burned kelp was used as a flux in glassmaking. Seaweed and peasant labour were alchemised into soda ash and shipped to Bristol and Gloucester, where mainland glassmakers and opportunistic middlemen could obscure the islander labour required for their industry.

The results of this industry have now come full circle, and the pits where the kelp fires burned - located as they are on Scilly’s vulnerable coastline - are frequently flooded in storms or are collapsing into the sea. Now only about a dozen pits survive, their destruction a result of climate change first seeded by the same Industrial Revolution responsible for their creation, which now threatens our world with climate collapse.

16x20 inches. Edition of five. £120