Dŵr yw Ein Tirwedd - Water is Our Landscape
In October/November I worked with various different community groups ( Year 11 Ysgol Eifionydd, Canolfan Felinfach and Morfa Nefyn Maritime Museum) to create a series of vessels and pennies out of wild clay gathered from the Pen Llŷn coastline.
When creating our pots we talked about our personal relationship towards water and the sea, how living near the coast has impacted and shaped us. The aim of the workshops was to engage with people and think about the relationship between terrestrial and marine and how their behaviours impact on water quality. The clay became vessels to hold our thoughts and words. At the end of the session, we made clay coins and imagined the sea as a huge holy well that could grant our wishes, enlivening past beliefs of water as a healing and magical resource.
I digitally scanned the pots as an alternative way of preserving the objects. Later, I took all the pots and placed them around Ffynnon Fair in Uwchmynydd. This is a well which gazes out at Bardsey Island, the last one the pilgrims drank from before making the treacherous crossing. It's a crystalline pool where lands turns into the sea and where fresh water meets the salt. The 70 + vessels gathered round the well as a kind of ceremonial offering. Accompanying the archive of these pots are conversations with a woman who was baptised with the well water, a water dowser and a well hopper, exploring the sacred belief systems around water.
Being unfired, the vessels returned to the sea with the weather and the changing tide.
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Ym mis Hydref/Tachwedd bues i’n gweithio gyda Blwyddyn 11 o Ysgol Eifionydd, Canolfan Felinfach ac Amgueddfa Forwrol Morfa Nefyn i greu cyfres o lestri a cheiniogau allan o glai gwyllt o’r arfordir Pen Llŷn.
Wrth greu ein potiau wnaethom sgwrsio am ein perthynas personol tuag at dŵr a'r môr; sut mae byw ar yr arfordir wedi effeithio arnom a’n siapio. Daeth y clai'n llestri er mwyn gwarchod ein meddyliau a geiriau. Cyn diwedd y sesiwn, wnaethom greu ceiniogau clai a cheisio dychmygu'r môr fel ffynnon sanctaidd enfawr all caniatáu ein dymuniadau, gan fywiogi cyn-gredoau'r gorffennol am ddŵr fel adnodd iachâd a hudol.
Wnes i gymryd yr holl potiau a’u gosod o amgylch Ffynnon Fair yn Uwchmynydd fel fath o offrwm neu seremoni. Dyma ffynnon sy'n syllu allan at Ynys Enlli, y ffynnon olaf ble yfodd y pererindodau cyn teithio ar ddraws y swnt peryglus. Dyma pwll crisialaidd ble made tirwedd yn troi mewn i'r môr ac ble mae dŵr croyw a dŵr hallt yn cwrdd at ei gilydd. Casglwyd y 70+ o botiau o amgylch y ffynnon fel fath o offrwm seremonïol. Gan nad oedd y cali wedi'u tanio, dychwelodd y llestri nôl i'r môr gyda'r tywydd a'r llanw.
