In 1962, the mines beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania, began burning. In the fifty years since, nearly all of the 1,000 residents have left, the roads have fallen into disrepair, the buildings that remain are only a remnant of the once vibrant mining community, and melancholy wisps of smoke still rise through cracks in the damaged, still-burning earth.
In 2014, Plaid Tuba teamed with Black Sheep MKE and Infrastructure Canvas to create the “Black Board Project” in an attempt to push local and contemporary art into the everyday lives of Milwaukee businesses and the general public. Last January, I was invited to take part.
While the project simply requires the artist to use blackboard paint and locally designed and created Infrastructure Canvas, I decided to take the idea a bit further. Reflecting on the “blackboard”, I found myself drawn to the idea of remnants...Leftovers...The once-erased images from the previous days teachings. When I had heard the strange and tragic tale of Centralia, PA., I found an immediate connection. Just as a blackboard begins each day with a blurred, messy and largely ignored recording of the previous day’s lesson, Centralia and its few remaining residents begin each day with the deteriorating memory of its once vibrant community and, as each day closes, a new chapter in the disappearance of a small town is recorded and filed away. With each day, the houses sink, the cracks widen, and the smoke continues to fill the sky With each passing class, the marks and lessons drift into chalk dust as new marks are scratched over the blackboard's surface.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
The remnants are there…but each day they fade.
The first painting, Centralia, PA., Part 1, represents the event: The start of the fire and the beginning of the end. A miner looks alarmingly over his shoulder with a piece of coal in his left had. Above him is an upward pointing arrow with an exclamation point references the depth of the mine and the coming disaster that forces the miners to the surface.
Below, you see a pink slip, a dollar, and some gold coins that represent the ending of the mine, the firing of the workers, the money offered to move the residents, and the lost revenue of the mine closing. In the upper left, a bright flash behind two pickaxes represents the start of the disaster. A flash gets the attention of the miner. A flash signals the beginning of the fire. Below, an image of the mine, now closed, surrounded by the shells of empty houses.
Centralia, PA., Part 2 is an image of the aftermath. A brighter scene represents the re-emergence of nature at the expense of the town, yet a large pickaxe stands as a symbol of that lost community. Roads representing commerce and community lead in and out of the composition but each is blocked with a large “X”. In the upper left a small column of smoke still rises from the hills as the story continues to evolve.
The Black Board Project featuring Daniel Fleming’s Centralia, PA., series is on view now through March 2015 at Black Sheep MKE located at 216 S 2nd St. Plaid Tuba and Infrastructure Canvas can be found on the 6th floor of the Marshall Building, 207 E Buffalo, Suite 600. Daniel Fleming works out of his studio on Milwaukee’s East Side. Contact him for a studio visit or check out his work at either of the following locations.
