Y Clymau Sy’n Cynnal – The Ties That Bind at Loggerheads

Y Clymau Sy’n Cynnal – The Ties That Bind was presented in the state-of-the-art Watermill 3D cinema at Loggerheads Country Park on April 28th 2023. The event represented an important marker on a long and winding journey which began in a bog in Radnorshire/Sir Faesyfed over a year ago – and has further yet to run…

As artist in residence to Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s Rhos Pasture Restoration Project –which sought to restore the rough, rushy grasslands that are such an important but much diminished habitat, not least for the curlew – I adopted fritillary butterflies as symbol of renewal and rebirth. This role is performed by butterflies in cultures around the world (have a look at the amazing hairstyles of traditional Hopi butterfly dancers) and seemed more than apt here where fritillaries are synonymous with boggy and not-so-boggy pastures.

At the launch of the project, manager Lucy Morton told an audience made up of both farmers and conservationists (which in itself seemed a positive development) that they hoped to encourage farmers in the locale to put cattle back on to this tussocky landscape. This is because their big hoofs and tearing grazing technique have a positive impact on the diversity of plant life – which in turn benefits the pollinators who have distinct preferences for certain flowers. The Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary for instance has a strong affinity with the Marsh Violet and Devil’s Bit Scabious. Without cattle, certain grasses proliferate, diminishing biodiversity.

So cattle (in the right numbers) = flowers = pollinators (and so on…). = Enhanced biodiversity.

I already knew a bit about this from my work with the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB who are deploying Belted Galloway cattle on Moel Famau for the same purpose – which is referred to as ‘conservation grazing’ and benefits bird species like the curlew and black grouse. And knowing from farming neighbours just how much their cattle mean to them this seemed a powerful confluence within what is an often polarised relationship. Another ray of hope…

Anyway, back to that bog, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest on land owned by farmer William Collard whom I met at the launch and who’d made some observations I wanted to follow up on. Here he is…

Three things from this rich experience stand out in my memory. Firstly, there was a group of local tree surgeons working on the land. They’d never heard of a curlew. Here they are…

Secondly, I fell in the bog, landing horizontally such that when I righted myself I had a brown stripe running up my torso. Everyone was very polite but they must have been roaring with laughter inwardly. It was a good ice-breaker (literally).

And thirdly, William introduced me to R S Thomas’ poem The Bright Field. This, when I read it, seemed extraordinarily resonant in a number of ways, not least in Thomas’ exhortation to make time to dwell in moments of natural beauty and spirituality. I resolved to use it in the soundtrack of the piece, which would be about a landscape re-awakening – maybe both the physical one and a metaphysical one within us.

Later the same day I met with Sharon Hammond whom I’d also spoken to at the project launch and is Chair of NFU Cymru Radnorshire. This sparked an on-going dialogue which I’ve come to value greatly. A month or so later, in the course of a text conversation with Sharon, I commented on the complex network of connections between farming families in this (and indeed every) area, which transcends generations. ‘The Ties That Bind…’ was her reply. So that was the title for the film sorted; vital connections between people mirror the linkages which underpin biodiversity. Symbiosis.

Here she is, being photobombed by her grandson…

In May last year Jenny Mottershead, who had been managing the project for Radnorshire Wildlife Trust moved to another job and was eventually replaced by Toby Hay – whose virtuoso guitar playing I was familiar with. So (naturally) the first thing I asked him when we met was if he’d play on the film soundtrack. To my delight he agreed without hesitation. Here he is in one of our recording sessions which took place in the drawing room at Doldowlod Hall, thanks to the generosity of Julian and MT Gibson-Watt (which has been boundless)…

As a feature of the soundtrack I wanted to create a diverse chorus of farmers and conservationists reciting The Bright Field – a floating word-scape expressing the capacity for finding beauty in the landscape which resides in us all and is a defining feature of our humanity. We engineered this at Llanwrthwl Village Hall last June and it was a further tonic to see RWT staff (including Chief Exec James Hitchcock) and farmers (including Sharon) sharing a cuppa and a Welsh cake after making their recordings.

One of the farmers who gave us a reading (after no small amount of technical deliberation over the word ‘the’) was Radnorshire NFU National Council delegate Geraint Watkins, who is doing inspiring work on his hill farm with Dexter cattle and no-fence collars. It transpired that he’s also a keen guitarist and Portishead fan – and was somewhat in awe of Toby, who was busily dispensing Welsh cakes. So (it goes without saying), we had to have him on the soundtrack and twisted his arm accordingly.

Here he is in the drawing room at Doldowlod cradling a voluptuous guitar in front of an amp of truly agricultural proportions (does it run on red diesel I wonder?) which he carried in with his brother Irfon, who also gave us a reading of The Bright Field, along with the Gibson Watts…

My old mucker and long time associate composer (and guitarist) Jim Brook showed Geraint how to get the guitar to feed back à la Robert Fripp. The hum was mighty – it’s embedded in the sound world of the film…

In November, ensconced in residence at Ruthin Craft Centre, I was able to get to know the completed piece fully for the first time. It can sometimes take months of alternating separation and revisiting to become sufficiently acquainted with a work so as to be at peace (or not) with it; so opportunities such as the Craft Centre provides for this sort of thing are gold dust. Here is the installation in the project space…

An iris opening onto the landscape constructed from the wings of the small pearl-bordered fritillary

Small pearl-bordered fritillaries, devils bit scabious (another food plant for the small pearl-bordered fritillary) and cattle hoofprints. Symbiosis..

Patterns of movement and light in rhos grass stems – I documented the re-awakening of two rhos pasture sites from mid-winter to early June

A dead tree – a distinct and rich ecosystem in its own right – on William Collard’s rhos

I eventually decided that I was comfortable with it – happy even – and, having discovered that there were Fritillaries (Small Pearl Bordered, Pearl Bordered and Dark Green) in the AONB at Aberduna and Eyarth Rocks, realised that it might present a good way to get people to see what was possible with the forthcoming curlew piece. And that it’d also be a means to communicate the principle of symbiosis and what happens when a link in the chain of biodiversity is broken – such as when large herbivores are removed from an ecosystem. And how farming can contribute a great deal to the restoration of biodiversity that is so urgently needed.

So, chewing possibilities over with Rhiannon Gwyn, who was helping me out with the development of an engagement programme for the residency at the Craft Centre, we came up with the idea of working with local schoolchildren to create many, many lanterns – far more than I could make by myself – to augment the projection. These, through their stencilled iconography, would communicate the symbiotic relationship between small pearl-bordered fritillary, marsh violet and cattle. Like this…

And so when Ysgol Pen Barras, Rhuthun and Ysgol Dyffryn Iâl, Llandegla visited the Craft Centre to explore the residency studio we showed them the film. Here they are…

And this is what they saw…

And they all thought the lanterns were a good idea so we made lots of them. Like this…

And that’s how we all came together: farmers, artists, conservationists and schoolchildren from up and down rural Wales – Art Makers all – to create something quite magical at Loggerheads.

This…