Mixed Media Drawing
Mixed Media Drawing
SYNOPSIS
“Mining Human Stories” is a graphic novel which questions our relationship with the Earth and its mineral resources, through the prism of personal stories and perspectives, in different countries and across several continents.
Mining operations have shaped our society, economy and environment for millennia. Today, the energy transition and our society’s dependence to products and technologies are increasing the pressure to mine for critical minerals, in an overwhelming context of geopolitical, social, environmental and climate crises. Mineral exploration and extraction in the past two centuries are intertwined with colonialism and capitalism, and are responsible for a series of mine failures and environmental disasters. However, mining also enables innovations in science, technology, energy, telecommunications, medicine, agriculture… At the core of this industry lies a fascinating science, geology, which informs humans origins and evolution on this planet and in the universe. How do we reconcile these paradoxical scales of space, time, technological progress and noxious legacies?
This graphic novel focuses on human-scale, relatable stories and questioning told by those who live and work in the mining industry. The book unfolds as a series of chapters retracing our evolving relationship with the Earth and its minerals, starting with hand-digging the earth for flintstone and arrowheads, to copper smithing, mining for iron and the emergence of steel during the industrial revolution, then exploring for gold, molybdenum, tungsten... Through a process informed by the author’s background as a field geologist, built upon people’s interviews and visits of old and active mining sites in the Yukon, Chile and Sweden, a fascinating and paradoxical mesh of human stories emerges, rooted in a weirdly organic connection between people, rocks and minerals. Family-run gold mines in the Klondike, stories of arsenic and bismuth leading to invisible gold, the search for a lifestyle detached from money and modern-life pressures, or gold feeding global investments and distant wars…
This work-in-progress graphic novel may not provide any easy answers to the overwhelming questions of our time; it is an exploratory journey, like drilling through a complex network of human stories as if they were veins, crosscutting each other and intersecting million years old geological strata. The reader may find these stories are worth all the gold in the world!
INTRODUCTION PAGES
SELECTION OF SKETCHES FROM SITE VISITS AND INTERVIEWS IN THE YUKON, SUMMER 2025
As the project evolves, I will be posting updates on my Instagram account (@estherbordetpainting). Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!