August 2008

Kreuzberg, Berlin

Performance Installation

In August 2008 I spent a month long residency at a gallery in Berlin, Art Claims Impulse. The residency resulted in a public performance, a durational event focused around a contemporary retelling of the Welsh epic Y Gododdin. This 6th century poem tells the tale of the Brythonic tribe Y Gododdin and their fight to oppose the invading Angles from overtaking their Kingdom. At a battle that takes place at Catraeth, modern day Catterick, of the 300 who go into battle only one survives.

In my performance I dressed as a soldier and chopped a pile of 300 carrots until only one remained whole. Whilst performing this action I sang a music hall song from the First World War, ‘Let the great big world keep turning’. My grandmother was born during the First World War and lived on a tenant farm near Catterick before moving to Wales to farm in the 1950s.

The chopped carrots that were strewn across the floor went on to form an installation which also contained my grandmother’s suitcase, a wedding dress and a dead rabbit. When my grandparents moved to West Wales I’m told they lived on rabbits. Footage from this performance was included in a short film titled Menyw a Ddaeth o Gatraeth.

The residency was funded by Wales Arts International.

Perfformiad ac osodiad oedd wedi ysbrodoli gan Y Gododdin, cyfres o gerddi mawrnad y chweched ganrif ar gyfer ddynion a laddwyd mewn brwydr yng Nghatraeth. Mae'r gwaith yn archwilio coffadwriaeth yng nghyd-destun rhyfel. Cynhyrchwyd y gwaith tra roeddwn ar breswyliad yn yr oriel Art Claims Impulse, Kreuzberg, Berlin. Cynhaliwyd y breswyliad gan Celfyddydau Rhyngwladol Cymru.