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Arts Film Outcomes Reports

David Begley ‘Small Finds’

Artist in Residence

David Begley ‘Small Finds’

David Begley is an artist, writer and arts educator who works through the mediums of drawing, painting, print, animation, video, sound, writing and gardening/nature connection.

David was commissioned in 2020 by the Ancient Connections Project to become our artist in residence, following the Exploring a Shared Past strand (diving into the history and archaeological connections between Wexford and Pembrokeshire) in a creative and participatory way.

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David’s own journey started with a period of intense research which continued through the course of his residency…

“My research was extensive throughout this residency. It included foraging materials from hedgerows in Ferns to create a palette of medieval inks, developing techniques in using these, researching the history of medieval inks and manuscript making, illumination, quill making, reed pen making in order to make my own drawing tools and impart this knowledge to pupils of St Edan’s National School. I learned to carve spoons in the tradition of Welsh Cawl spoons by attending a private workshop with Welsh carver Osian Denman. I filmed and edited this experience, carved sycamore spoons, and used these in ink making”

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Enthused by his research, David created a beautiful garden at St Edan’s National School. He then worked alongside children at the school delivering a twelve-week visual art, heritage and gardening project where pupils grew fruit, vegetables, medicinal and culinary herbs and flowers and used these as sources for drawing, painting, science and history lessons and workshops. Inspired by the medieval monk, St. Aidan, many of the plants chosen for the garden would have grown in medieval monastic gardens.

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A 10,000 word illustrated account of this experience can be read here: https://www.davidbegley.com/themonksgarden

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And an online exhibition of school children’s work can be viewed here: https://www.davidbegley.com/stedans-ns-exhibition

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David also produced a body of magical images entitled ‘Small Finds’ from the inks he created using foraged materials including oak gall, alder cone and elderberries. More images and information on how to purchase prints can be found here: https://www.davidbegley.com/smallfinds

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‘Small finds, a journey into ink’ is a documentary of his experience making these images and can be viewed here:  https://vimeo.com/davidbegleyartist/smallfinds


You can download David’s full report on his Ancient Connections residency below:

Click here to get in touch with David or to find out more about his work.

 

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Arts Film Outcomes

The Allabair Trio concerts

concert

The Allabair Trio concerts

 The Allabair Trio Concerts took place in May 2022 and June 2023  in St. Edan’s Cathedral, Ferns, with music performed and composed by Melanie O’Reilly also featuring David Creevy on guitar and Brewen Favreau on Uillean Pipes/Low Whistle, with guest choir, the Chord On Blues led by Mary Moulds.  The concerts premiered new songs inspired by the connection between St. Aidan and St. David.

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Archive Arts

“The Monk’s Garden” by David Begley – Artist in Residence Wexford


Artists in Residence

"The Monk's Garden" by David Begley – Artist in Residence Wexford

The Monk’s Garden, Ferns, Co. Wexford.

The Ancient Connections project is a rich mix of heritage, art and community development. In today’s blog, we’re shining a light on one of our fantastic arts projects. Here’s artist David Begley to tell us all about his wonderfully nurturing artist residency in Ferns.

The Monk’s Garden at St Edan’s National School, Ferns, is a twelve-week art, heritage and garden project. The children are sowing an eight by five metre plot inspired by medieval monastic gardens in order to learn about soil, seeds, germination, the importance of water, the history of farming and current farming practice; nurturing plants to grow food, the beauty and activities of insects, and much more.

We are sourcing locally to make art materials to respond to the garden – oak gall ink, reed pens, turkey feather quills, and learning how colours were once found and ground to illuminate goat skin parchments. Our bestiary is beginning to bleat and wriggle. Robins, rooks and sparrows.

We are experimenting with fleece to lay mulch, retain moisture and prevent erosion. Our archaeological dig has unearthed finds from 300,000 BC. Using homemade charcoal, we drew the school secretary in her Covid-19 mask; we wove a wattle fence and tiny nests with willow and hazel and we are coming to know the names and uses of herbs.

Image courtesy of David Begley, 2021.

Each week I bring a gift from the sea, a small find, to connect us to our Welsh neighbours. Clam shells for palettes. Scallops for bed borders. Sea coal. Vertebrae. Wrack.

We discuss drought, and the cost of shearing versus the price of wool, have learned what daggings are, have made compost, and heard that a cow can drink a bathtub of water per day.

Image courtesy of David Begley, 2021.

Masterpieces are being made by squeal and giggle or cross legged quiet upon the lawn. The children’s hands are dirty. Their classroom is an open field, a wattled rectangle, the feel of a lamb’s ear, the light of the sky and freedom of their imaginations. It’s a wonder to see the children enjoy this ‘work’ through play and experiment.

As we move into summer, our seedlings will soon become flowers, herbs, colours, fruit and tubers, our beans will sprout leaves and gargantuan stalks. So come July, the fantastic beasts the children are painting will have a place to call home.

David Begley 2021

The Monk’s Garden is part of David Begley’s Ancient Connections artist residency in Ferns. Follow the project at www.davidbegley.com and https://www.facebook.com/themonksgarden

David headshot 2 2
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Archive Arts Reports

David Begley Final report on Ancient Connections, Artist in Residency


Artist in Residence

David Begley - Final report on Ancient Connections artist residency

David headshot 2 2

Research Summary

My research was extensive throughout this residency. It included foraging materials from hedgerows in Ferns to create a palette of medieval inks, developing techniques in using these, researching the history of medieval inks and manuscript making, illumination, quill making, reed pen making in order to make my own drawing tools and impart this knowledge to pupils of St Edan’s National School. I learned to carve spoons in the tradition of Welsh Cawl spoons by attending a private workshop with Welsh carver Osian Denman. I filmed and edited this experience, carved sycamore spoons, and used these in ink making:

 

 

I carried out in-depth research on traditional and contemporary horticultural practices in planning the preparation and maintenance of The Monk’s Garden at St Edan’s NS. I investigated the uses of wool fleece in compost production, erosion defence and water retention as a defence against drought, and used this successfully to feed and sustain the Garden while not being watered by school staff during holiday periods. Pupils of St Edan’s explained to me in detail the costs involved in shearing versus the selling price of clean, maggot-free wool. Researched and wrote about Lanolin.

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Archive Arts News

Ar Log performing St Davids Cathedral

NEWS

Ar Log yn perfformio caneuon gwerin Cymraeg newydd yn Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi

Ar Log yw un o grwpiau gwerin mwyaf hirhoedlog a mwyaf poblogaidd Cymru. Mae dawn gerddorol  anhygoel y band, eu lleisiau Cymraeg sensitif, a’u clocsio bywiog i gyd i’w mwynhau ar eu recordiau. Er bod yna lawer o gerddorion gwych yng Nghymru, dylai unrhyw archwiliad o gerddoriaeth y wlad ddechrau gyda, neu o leiaf gynnwys,  recordiadau Ar Log. 

Byddan nhw’n perfformio cyfres newydd o chwe chân werin Gymreig a gyfansoddwyd gan y cyfansoddwr Cymreig byd-enwog Paul Mealor gyda’r geiriau gan un o feirdd amlycaf Cymru, Grahame Davies.

 Ar Log oedd y grŵp proffesiynol cyntaf i fynd â cherddoriaeth draddodiadol Cymru i’r llwyfan rhyngwladol. Ffurfiwyd y grŵp yn arbennig ar gyfer gŵyl Lorient, Llydaw, ym 1976, ac wedi hynny treuliodd y grŵp saith mlynedd yn perfformio ar hyd a lled Ewrop, Gogledd a De America, gan greu enw rhagorol iddyn nhw eu hunain fel llysgenhadon pennaf cerddoriaeth Gymreig. Gyda deg albwm hynod lwyddiannus i’w henw, maen nhw’n dal i swyno eu cynulleidfaoedd trwy eu perfformiadau byw cofiadwy a bywiog.

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Archive Arts News

Sift – exhibition at Oriel Y Parc and St Davids Cathedral Refectory

NEWS

Sift – arddangosfa yn Oriel y Parc a Ffreutur Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi

Yn agor ddydd Iau 23 Chwefror

4-5 pm Y Ffreutur, Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi – Small Finds David Begley

5-7 pm Oriel Y Parc – Seán Vicary, John Sunderland, Sylvia Cullen, Linda Norris

Dydd Sul 26 Mawrth 2 – 5.20 pm Light Boats gyda Tracy Breathnach, Porth Mawr, Tyddewi

Teithiau arddangos i Swyddfa Cyngor Sir Wexford, Carriklawn 17 Ebrill – 19 Mai. Yn agor ddydd Gwener 14 Ebrill

Mae’n bleser gan Gysylltiadau Hynafol gyhoeddi agor arddangosfa o’r enw Sift yn Oriel y Parc a Ffreutur Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi ar 23 Chwefror. Yn dilyn hyn, bydd y sioe yn teithio i dref Wexford, gan agor ar 14 Ebrill yn swyddfeydd Cyngor Sir Wexford yn Carricklawn.

Mae’r chwe artist, yn cynnwys John Sunderland, Sylvia Cullen a David Begley, sydd wedi eu lleoli yn nwyrain Iwerddon a  Seán Vicary, Linda Norris a Tracy Breathnac sydd yng ngorllewin Cymru.

Mae’r arddangosfa’n plethu themâu teithio, lleoedd cysegredig, treftadaeth hynafol, adrodd straeon a hiraeth am gartref ynghyd trwy ffotograffiaeth, animeiddio, sain, celfyddydau cyfranogol, testun, stori, gwydr a golau. Mae’r artistiaid wedi’u hysbrydoli gan ganfyddiadau  ehangach prosiect Cysylltiadau Hynafol. Mae ymchwil hanesyddol, llên gwerin a chasglu straeon wedi datgelu cysylltiadau dwfn rhwng y ddau ranbarth yma ac mae’r cloddiadau archeolegol a’r arolygon geoffisegol yn y Porth Mawr ac yn Ferns, Wexford yn adrodd hanes teithio a chysylltiadau rhwng Wexford a Sir Benfro o’r cyfnod cynhanes hyd heddiw.

Meddai’r awdur Sylvia Cullen, sydd wedi’i lleoli yn Wexford:

“Y môr sy’n ein cysylltu ni” – Dyma’r geiriau oedd fwyaf perthnasol i mi, wrth i mi ymchwilio ar gyfer y comisiwn hwn. Ysgrifennu a recordio pedair stori fer newydd mewn ymateb i nifer o themâu Cysylltiadau Hynafol oedd ffocws fy ngwaith. Cafodd y rhan fwyaf o’r cymeriadau a’r bydoedd a ddaeth i’r amlwg eu hysbrydoli gan fywydau a digwyddiadau’n gysylltiedig â’r dŵr sy’n cysylltu Sir Benfro a Gogledd Wexford.

Mae artist amlgyfrwng Seán Vicary wedi creu gosodiad fideo newydd ac meddai:

Mae fy ngwaith yn ymateb i fis a dreuliais yn gweithio ochr yn ochr ag Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Dyfed yn ystod y gwaith o gloddio mynwent ganoloesol gynnar sy’n cael ei bygwth gan erydiad arfordirol  yng Nghapel Sant Padrig, Porth Mawr. Rwyf wedi defnyddio delweddau symudol, recordiadau a wnes i yn y maes ac animeiddiad i fyfyrio ar y profiad hwn ac archwilio’r berthynas rhwng y prosesau archaeolegol ac artistig.

Derbyniodd Tracy Breathnach wahoddiad gan Gysylltiadau Hynafol i greu digwyddiad cyfranogol ar Draeth y Porth Mawr i goffáu pawb a gladdwyd ym mynwent ganoloesol gynnar Capel Sant Padrig. Cynhelir y digwyddiad rhad ac am ddim hwn rhwng 2 a 5.20 pm ddydd Sul 26 Mawrth ac mae ar agor i unrhyw un. Meddai Tracy: ‘Bydd y rhai sy’n cymryd rhan yn creu cychod helyg syml maint cledr eich llaw, wedi’i lenwi â bwndel bach o blanhigion brodorol i’w gosod ar y traeth er mwyn i’r llanw eu cario allan. Bydd gosod golau gyda phob cwch bach yn symbolaidd, gall gynrychioli meddyliau, dymuniadau, gobeithion a gweddïau dros y rhai sy’n byw a’r rhai sydd wedi marw’.

Archebwch le drwy’r ddolen Eventbrite yma

Mae David Begley wedi bod yn artist Preswyl gyda Chysylltiadau Hynafol ers 2020. Mae ei ymchwil i arferion ffermio canoloesol, Sant Aeddan o Ferns, planhigion meddyginiaethol, llawysgrifau canoloesol a gwneud inc, yn ogystal ag arferion ffermio ac iacháu cyfoes yn Ferns wedi ysbrydoli corff presennol David o waith Small Findings mewn lluniadu, peintio a fideo a fydd yn cael eu harddangos yn Ffreutur Eglwys Gadeiriol Tyddewi.

Mae Linda Norris wedi creu gosodiad golau a gwydr sy’n cynnwys dresel rithwir sy’n ymgorffori barddoniaeth a ysgrifennwyd gan gyfranogwyr o Sir Benfro ac Iwerddon ac a ysbrydolwyd gan ddarnau ceramig a ddarganfuwyd ac sydd wedi’u ‘sandblastio’ ar ddarnau o wydr. Meddai Linda:

Yn ei hanfod, mae’r gwaith yn ymchwilio’n ddychmygus i gysylltiadau dynol pwerus ar draws amser a thirweddau. Mae’r darnau bach hyn yn borth i fywydau a lleoedd eraill, ac mae teithio yno’n ein hysbrydoli i fyfyrio ar ein pennau ein hunain.

Yn ei gyfres o focsys golau o’r enw Unheimlich, mae John Sunderland yn dogfennu’r llwybr pererindod newydd o Ferns i Dyddewi, gan ddychmygu sut y byddai rhywun o’r cyfnod canoloesol wedi ymateb i’r tirweddau hyn, fel yr oedden nhw bryd hynny a sut y maen nhw heddiw. Mae wedi tynnu lluniau o olygfeydd sy’n crynhoi’r myfyrdodau hyn.

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Cwtch Festival – tickets now live!

NEWS

Cwtch Festival - Tickets now Live!

Tickets are now on sale for Cwtch Festival, St Davids, Pembrokeshire, 28th – 30th October .

Over 50 acts will play free and ticketed gigs over three days this autumn- including Welsh and Irish talent: The Magic Numbers, Lisa O’Neill, Scott Matthews, Adwaith, Penelope Isles and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, who have just supported Tom Jones and Stereophonics at the Principality Stadium.

Open to everyone, the festival is hosting exclusive, intimate ticketed gigs at City Hall and Ty’r Pererin as well as free music along the ‘cwtch trail’.

Weekend passes and individual gig tickets are available.

The festival is part funded by Ancient Connections.

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Archive Arts

David Begley – Artist in Residence Wexford


Artists in Residence

David Begley – Artist in Residence Wexford

Wonder this: before St Aidan arrived and The Normans later, what drew the ancients to Ferns in the first place? Was it chance Tom Breen’s plough unearthed the first relic at Clone which led us to poke holes in the turf and speculate? Who lay the first seed? What made the first tribe put down roots, leaving charcoal and ceramic in their wake?

The first farmers followed distinct seasons. Today it snows in March, scalds in April, pours in July. So how will future farmers cope? During the drought of 2018 archaeologist Barry Lacey flew a drone over Tom Breen’s field and discovered an ecclesiastical enclosure surrounding Clone church. This led to the community dig of 2019. What will future excavations unearth?

David headshot 2 2

The Revelations the Trowel Unearths

“For centuries monks and artists have sought out solitude in order to reflect and create. Responding to the Monastic sites of Ferns and through the activity of excavating and exploring the history and heritage of farming in Ferns, I wish to illuminate the beauty of this place and its people.

During this residency I will be making a video documentary on the heritage of farming in Ferns, facilitate a 12 week visual arts, storytelling and gardening project with St Edan’s National School and produce a new body of work in drawing, print, painting, ceramic and writing. From silence and contemplation comes expression. I savour the opportunity to kneel in a field and delve through the surface, experience sifting the soil, witness revelations the trowel unearths and how this may percolate into my work, through observation and recording, and through encounters with people, places, objects and stories. I look forward to sharing what I have learned.

I have begun walking and documenting the hedgerow of a 24 acre field in Ferns, gathering materials and ingredients as I go, and making inks with these in order to respond to this farmer’s field and his fascinating family history.” – David Begley

Date: July 2020 – Aug 2022

Funded By: Wexford Percent for Art

Learn More at:
www.davidbegley.com
www.instagram.com/davidbegleyartist
www.facebook.com/davidbegleyartist

Project Outputs:
Exhibition
New Garden
Documentary Film

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Archive Arts

Artists Commissions

Arts Project

Artists Commissions

Ancient Connections has commissioned four new artists’ commissions, exploring some interlinked themes that are at the heart of the project including: pilgrimage, connecting with the Celtic diaspora of Ireland and Wales and our relationships to sacred places such as holy wells, chapels and ancient sites.

The artists will produce new artworks over the next two years, inspired by their own research as well as the findings uncovered by the Ancient Connections teams of story gatherers, community researchers and archaeologists. Each artist is expected to create work that can be shared online, in order to engage with both local audiences and with people much further afield such as Australia and North America, where there are significant communities of people with Irish and Welsh ancestry. The artists will also present their work in a final public showing in both Wexford and Pembrokeshire in 2022.

The four artists are Seán Vicary and Linda Norris, who are both visual artists based in West Wales, and artist/archaeologist John Sunderland and writer Sylvia Cullen, based in Ireland’s south-east.

Linda Norris

‘Williams Leatham Plate’ from Cân yr Oer Wynt series, ceramic decal on vintage china

Linda Norris proposes to use ‘sherds’ or found pottery fragments as the starting point for her project, encouraging people to send sherds to her and locate them on an online map. She says:

“Far from the glamour of precious metal hordes or celebrated monuments, sherds speak of anonymous domestic stories and link us with the people who lived in our homes in the past. I propose to initiate a ‘citizen archaeology’ project in Pembrokeshire and Wexford, and extending into the Celtic Diaspora. I will be researching people who emigrated from these regions to the Diaspora in the 19th century and trying to trace their descendants.”

Seán Vicary

'Field Notes RAF St Davids'

Multi-media artist Seán Vicary recently discovered that his great-grandmother was born in 1874, just 3.5 miles from Ferns in Camolin, and he seeks to:

“Understand the forces that shaped me living here across the water from my great grandmother’s home. By excavating my own past, I’ll undertake a process that mirrors the archaeological and historical research underway in both communities”.

He will be discovering ‘hidden narratives’ in the landscape and creatively working them into an engaging personal travelogue that moves back and forth between Pembrokeshire and Wexford.

“Voice, text, music, film and animation will combine to evoke these places in an exciting, contemporary way; building a deeper sense of identity through sharing experiences of reconnection”.

John Sunderland

'The Shooting Hut' (Site 1, Visit 9) from the project 'Touching Darkness' (2019)

Trained archaeologist and visual artist John Sunderland will be undertaking a pilgrimage from Whitesands to Ferns and excavating found objects along the route for the creation of a reliquary alongside pinhole photographic work. Rather than approaching this like an analytical contemporary archaeologist, he hopes to examine his discoveries with a mediaeval mindset, paying attention to “the supernatural or the sacred, to questions of good and evil, signs or portents”.

Sylvia Cullen

Cover of Sylvia Cullen’s play The Thaw, commissioned by the Arts Council of Ireland, produced by the Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely, published by New Island Books, inspired by the people of North Wexford, South Wicklow and East Carlow.

Writer Sylvia Cullen proposes to create a bespoke new series of short stories for podcasts or livestreaming, drawing on “dramatic tales of piracy and bootlegging along the Welsh and Irish coastlines” and haunting tales of sacred places or a longing for home. She will also run creative writing workshops in both communities.

Watching these projects evolve separately and then ultimately weave together in a final presentation will be a journey of discovery for both the project team and our audiences.

Date: August 2020 – December 2022

Funded by: Ancient Connections

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Archive Arts

Fern Thomas Artist in Residence Pembrokeshire

Artist in Residence

Fern Thomas – Artist in Residence Pembrokeshire

YNYS: “…and as the relics, stones, bones and stories from both places washed out to sea, a new island was formed right in the middle. A shared place for culture, history, dreams, poetry and song from all time to live alongside each other. And from this place, a radio station was formed and began to transmit…”

“For this project I am creating a radio station that ‘transmits’ from YNYS, a fictional island located between Pembrokeshire and Wexford. YNYS takes its initial response from the erosion on Whitesands Bay, which exposed the buried chapel of St Patrick. The project considers the potential, through coastal erosion, for all of this history to be washed away – that somehow these coastal places are living right at the precipice, or at the very edge of history.” – Fern Thomas

Click here to listen to Fern’s radio transmissions

 

A Place of the Past and Future

“Taking this as a broader image I am imagining Pembrokeshire’s history washing into the sea while simultaneously Wexford’s history does the same, and from here they move towards one another and meet somewhere in the middle to form a fictional island. An island where St David can sit alongside the three young men from Wexford in their borrowed canoe; where the fire of Boia’s hill fort or the mermaids off Porth y Rhaw are as present as the eroding sand at Whitesands bay. A place where the past and the future are simultaneously considered.

This audio work will exist as several episodes which will follow the development of the Ancient Connections project where I will weave together excerpts of interviews with community members and participants in the Ancient Connections project alongside folklore, historical research, myths, field recordings from the sites, and sounds from archives as well as the present day to create an audio telling from this timeless land.”

“Embedded in the broadcasts I will offer poetic responses inspired by the questions being asked within the project as it develops, following the mysteries, the stories and the revelations as the Ancient Connection project unfolds.

The radio station’s content will be shaped by communities of Pembrokeshire and also of Wexford through public engagement events and one to one conversations.” – Fern Thomas

Date: July 2020 – August 2022

Learn More at: 

www.fernthomas/ynys.com

Project Outputs: 
Podcasts, a ceremonial event and an exhibition