In 2009, Rowe received a major commission for a permanent wall installation from the Cornwall Heartlands Project. The installation, Mineral Wall, is located in the World Heritage Site’s Historical Exhibition Centre near Redruth.
The Centre, built on the site of the disused South Crofty tin mine, is a key element of the West Devon and Cornish Mining UNESCO World Heritage Site, designated in recognition of the international importance of the Cornish tin and copper mining industry during the industrial revolution.
Extensive research was carried out into the social and technological history of mining, which included literature and online searches, museum and archival visits (including specialist collections at the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro and Zollverein Mining Museum, Essen, Germany), and meetings with a leading authority in the field, Alan Buckley.
Rowe subtitled his design ‘Pages from a metal book of metal’. Using a format of A2 rectangular metal plates, the installation appears as a kind of open folio. In creating the group of eight metal ‘pages’ that make up the work, Rowe’s objective was to communicate information about the materials and processes used in their making (the inherent material qualities of tin and copper and associated minerals as physical matter) and to speak about the wider instrumental and symbolic functions man has devised for these materials; importantly, he wanted the plates to reference the human endeavour of ore extraction and metal production.
The Cornwall Heartlands Project is unique in receiving Big Lottery ‘Living Landmarks’ funding with additional funding from World Heritage, European Regional Development Fund, Convergence for Economic Transformation, Homes and Communities Agency, and Cornwall Council.
Installation of the commission was completed in March 2012. Cornwall Heartlands was opened to the public in April 2012 at a three-day event that attracted thousands of visitors and gained national media coverage.