Coal has been revived as a major piece of art in a former mining heartland.

Song For Coal is the newest exhibition to be unveiled at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

It is focused around a large stained glass window projection, which has cannily swapped biblical images for those long associated with the trade.

Oil lamps, canaries, buckets and burning bright red coal are some of the items spotted amongst the 152 intricate panel images, which have been projected onto the wall of the park’s St Bartholomew Chapel.

Placed at the head of the church in front of rows of pews and mimicking the design of the apocalyptic rose window of Saint Chapelle in Paris, it offers visitors a space to consider the myriad of issues good and bad that the substance evokes.

This includes its impact on the economy and environment as well as its use as a symbol of regional culture and history.

Artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson are behind the exhibition, which was commissioned to commemorate last year’s 30 year anniversary of the 1984 Miners’ Strike.

The exhibition also explores the use of the rock as a literal form of art, through a bust-like sculpture made from it.

Opera North has also been involved by helping the artists to create a song which is a eulogy to coal and the industrial age.

Dominic Gray, Projects Director at Opera North, said: “Every time I see it I find something new that I hadn’t even noticed the last time.

“Part kaleidoscope, part cathedral rose window, with vocal music that is both resolutely secular and curiously spiritual.”