Preserving Hole - 2024
>> Division of Labour - Manchester - 2024
Aled Simons, Bláithín Mac Donnell, Tom Cardew
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A meteorite, a spoil tip, a mountain or an island. A fatberg. A co-authored story entangling fact, fiction and anecdotal prose. Three voices become one narrator, Celtic myth, folktales, traditions and superstitions are merged, layered and retold. A hole or a bog, subterranean preservation - like a time capsule in a biscuit tin with a dodgy lid, buried 40 years ago but the water got in. What happens when fact becomes anecdote?
An exhibition of audio, sculpture and textiles.
‘There had been heavy rain, a week of torrential downpours, incessant waterfall, fields of crops washed away overnight. Usually after heavy rain they clear the drains of organic waste, leaves, trees, silt and mud. But this time, this time they found a coffin.’
Preserving Hole is the culmination of a six-month conversational collaboration between Welsh artists Tom Cardew, Aled Simons and Irish artist Bláithín Mac Donnell. Emerging from research sharing and an exploration of practice intersections; individual interests are fused in tangential storytelling, narrative building and myth making. Unearthing spurious information and hearsay to present loose-narrative audio and sculptural installation, drawing on collective Celtic nation backgrounds. This project is a direct result of exchanges facilitated by the Four Nations International Fund.
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