Chthonic creatures are mythical-like beasts or beings that live under the surface of the Earth; demons as opposed to angels, mutants that live in sewers, or deformed creatures that live in swamps. Mines, graves and caves are chthonic spaces, marked as descriptions of depth and with the distinguishing characteristic of darkness. The cave is seen as organic, unlike the mine and grave which are viewed as artificial, the mine; an opening to extract matter from the Earth and the grave; for interring bodies in the Earth. The Earth’s subsurface can be understood as a chthonic space, embodying hell and the underworld, where the devil resides and the place where you come face to face with death.

 

The mine is a social and political space which illuminates the power dynamics between indigenous communities, the corporation and the state. This vessel; Chthonic, created and executed in collaboration with software and mechanical tooling, has not been touched by the hand of a human. Capitalist mechanisms of abusing labour work forces has been an ideology of colonial perpetrators for centuries, transformation of formerly free residents into bodies of extraction.