Silver Mountain
This delicate gouache painting depicts a mountain, “Cerro Rico” (Rich Mountain), located in Potosi, Bolivia, and carved up in the pursuit of silver. Scarred by greed for its mineral riches, mined since 1545, when the Spaniards began large-scale excavation. The conquistadors never found El Dorado, but they did find a mound of silver that seemed to flow forever, transforming a remote hamlet into the economic centre of Spain’s empire. This work explores the fragility and changeability of the mineral earth and is a reminder of the irreversible change wrought by human activity.
In historical vernacular mountains and geological features are associated with a sense of endurance, permanence and deep time. Cerro Rico stands today as the first and probably most important monument to capitalism. Yet this site demonstrates the human impact on these solid monoliths in the quest for material wealth and exploitation.
Exhausting the silver veins of the mountain, centuries of mining have left a sinkhole at the summit of Cerro Rico.
The mountain still stands but is crumbling inside, made unstable by miles of mine shafts excavated over 500 years. In his collection of essays on the indigenous peoples of the Americas[1], Jack Weatherford writes:
“You could build a silver bridge from Potosí to Madrid from what was mined here – and one back with the bones of those that died taking it out,”
[1] J. Weatherford, Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World, New York, N.Y. : Three Rivers Press, 1988.
Silver Mountain
This delicate gouache painting depicts a mountain, “Cerro Rico” (Rich Mountain), located in Potosi, Bolivia, and carved up in the pursuit of silver. Scarred by greed for its mineral riches, mined since 1545, when the Spaniards began large-scale excavation. The conquistadors never found El Dorado, but they did find a mound of silver that seemed to flow forever, transforming a remote hamlet into the economic centre of Spain’s empire. This work explores the fragility and changeability of the mineral earth and is a reminder of the irreversible change wrought by human activity.
In historical vernacular mountains and geological features are associated with a sense of endurance, permanence and deep time. Cerro Rico stands today as the first and probably most important monument to capitalism. Yet this site demonstrates the human impact on these solid monoliths in the quest for material wealth and exploitation.
Exhausting the silver veins of the mountain, centuries of mining have left a sinkhole at the summit of Cerro Rico.
The mountain still stands but is crumbling inside, made unstable by miles of mine shafts excavated over 500 years. In his collection of essays on the indigenous peoples of the Americas[1], Jack Weatherford writes:
“You could build a silver bridge from Potosí to Madrid from what was mined here – and one back with the bones of those that died taking it out,”
[1] J. Weatherford, Indian Givers: How Native Americans Transformed the World, New York, N.Y. : Three Rivers Press, 1988.