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actually it's about love

By  Helen Acklam 2023 - 2024

CR: Fiona Winning

I have been working in a cemetery in the Garw Valley, Sth Wales,  collaborating with the earth and landscape to explore grief and maternal narratives.

The  valley above the cemetery rises up into a simple mound, or mynydd in Welsh.  The top of this mound is made up of stones in circular formations of various sizes.  These could be ancient burial cairns and places of ritual, or geological phenomena. For me they have become focal points to bridge the gap between body and stone and find tangible places to 
belong. 


In Medieval times, the Welsh Bards used to place stones on their bellies prior to writing to inspire their poetry and storytelling. Who was listening to who I wonder.  In these works and documentations of events, the stones become both muse and collaborator, a source of energy and a repository for the narratives of loss and motherhood.

 

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