In June 2011, Bik Van der Pol cleaned a sample of black rock located in the centre of Sudbury for the duration of four days, during a performative action. The black rocks are a crucial element to the city's environment. The history of Sudbury as a mining city has not only had an impact on the layout of the city and the everyday life of its citizens. It has also had and continues to have an impact on the environment, visible in the pitted, charred and eroded black surfaces throughout Sudbury. This is a place where the circle of earth and unearthing is very much present, and experiencing the embodiment of this process is intense; what comes out of the earths body directly affects this same body as well.
Well aware that cleaning this small area does not solve the dilemma of global usage of the earth, the act of cleaning this rock emphasizes a certain responsibility to exchange one labour for another, and its potential power lies in the meditative nature of repetitive labour. Citizens of Sudbury were invited to pass by and contribute to the process. A range of people was also invited to think aloud on the possible meanings of cleaning in the context of language,