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                                                                                     Track & Trace

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The group of us, two poets and six visual artists, had been involved in planning an event around the Mari Lwyd  tradition to be presented in January of this year. This was, of course cancelled because of covid and we were all finding it difficult to work without the stimulus of talking to others about our ideas. 

 

After all, ideas don’t arrive readymade, courtesy of the Muse.  They grow out of an idle chat over coffee, a remark overheard on a bus, a worn inscription in a church, a seagull’s skull found on the beach, a conversation in a pub and none of these moments, these starting points, could take place, thanks to covid. 

 

This  project was intended as a way to feed our imaginations and keep working in this very strangest of times.

 

Each of us produced a piece of work about covid and sent it to someone else in the group. We then made work responding to the piece we had been sent and sent it on to another member of the group. Every three weeks we received a piece of work from someone and in turn sent a piece on to someone else.   We also met every two weeks on Zoom to talk about what we were doing.

 

The project ended in an exhibition at the Gallery in the Art Shop Abergavenny, showing the different threads and connections and developing ideas.  

 

Now we’re planning a new project, to keep us going though the winter.