The exhibition originated in Lockdown. Each week I made a dress or item of clothing from the stash of ghost net and sea rope, the flotsam and jetsam I have scavenged off the beaches of Wales or Scotland or Ireand over the past years.
When Lockdown first started I listened to a podcast from Emergence Magazine where Dr Martin Shaw retold the old Danish Fairytale of the Lindworm Prince. It really resonated with the times. Traditionally the story has a shepherd girl and a snake which turns into a man. But as I worked with sea rope the girl became a fisher and the Lindworm Prince wanted to become an eel. and that has meant a shift in the retelling!
12 is the number of dresses that the fisher girl in my retelling, made before her marriage to the fairy tale Lindworm prince. She wore them all on her wedding night and for each sea dress she removed, the Lindworm took off a layer until he was no longer a man but a big silver eel.
12 layers removed how many layers is society removing now? How many layers are we shedding to get down to what is essential in our lives?? To what matters most? How many layers for us to be able to be transformed and to then move on?
New words have entered our vocabulary. Words like self isolation; shielding; social distancing. Other words have resonated as I work and become part of the pieces and the poems such as unravelling, disconnect, ‘holding space’, reciprocity, repurposing.
Then the work metamorphosed again as I was pulled further into the complexity and mystery of the Eel and the Eel Question and Eirian the Eel came into being.
Themes running through the art work
Environmental
The collection of work has very strong environmental themes impacting our society today.
The Material itself; Rope, netting (known as ghostnets), buoys and other fishing detritus are dislodged, thrown or discarded from boats and do not rot, it entangles in the debris, killing marine life as well as adding to the global plastic problem.
Micro plastic – rope and net does not rot, it simply breaks down to smaller and smaller pieces. These pollute the seas in many ways including being eaten which transports through the food chain affecting the reproductive capabilities amongst others. Eventually forming the outlines of our bodies in our coffins when all else is gone to dust. Layers of plastic in the geological layers denoting a new phase of the anthrocene as ‘Plastocene’.
Eels – “the largest wildlife crime on earth”
Our Native eel – the European Eel, Anguilla anguilla, is a critically endangered species at risk of extinction. It is also one of the most mysterious and elusive. Even now it’s lifeycle is still not fully understood. Once it was so common in our waters that when the young eels or glass eels returned to our shores they formed a continuous twisting shining glass worm as they entered the rivers such as the River Severn and swam up. Eels used to be caught for food such as eel pie and jellied eels. Now illegal to export, elvers attract £1000’s of pounds to be smuggled out to fish farms.
“The trade in silver eels has been referred to as “the largest wildlife crime on earth” and is believed to be worth around £3 billion each year, making it more lucrative than trafficking drugs such as cocaine.” (https://britishseafishing.co.uk/silver-eel/ Accessed 18/7/2020)
Anguilla anguilla is the Lindworm Prince in my retelling of the old fairytale.
Waste – the material I work with has been abandoned, discarded, lost. A bit like the Lindworm – cast away unwanted. Then they are found again and beauty is created from these items and they are useful again. Recycled, upcycled. repurposed
Fairytales
The collection of art pieces explores this through the Danish Lindworm Prince fairytale which has similarities to the Scottish ‘Tatterhood’. During lockdown a time of removing/ unravelling layers of society as the layers of the worm skin/scales are removed. The disconnect with wildness, the natural world and how to focus on the positive, to rekindle our relationships with nature. The consequences highlighted now by the choices we make as individuals and as a collective in our society. But can fairy tales also show us the way forward, the way out of our predicament too?
Holding Space
what does it mean to hold space? To walk alongside, to just be there, no judgement, to give time. To hold space for individuals for humanity for the natural world. This work creates a space for people to reflect, to be. For me it allowed me to explore issues thrown up during lockdown, so it was a journey through the first 12 weeks of shielded isolation.