For a Spell, February 2020
For a Spell was a participatory work with my children and their peers. It was a one day event celebrating the hobby horse and re-imagining past place-based folk customs of Wales. The hobby horses were introduced to the children through a story about horses who lived within the depths of a mountain and have now been released…
The work has been informed by a residency at Glamorgan Archives where I was researching folkloric histories, customs and beliefs within the collections including Y Ceffyl Pren, the wooden horse, and also the Mari Lwyd. The costumes were inspired by the photographic documents of carnivals held in Cowbridge in the early 1900’s.
The work also seeks to explore Donna Haraway’s proposition for ‘Making Kin’ and the need for new rituals to bring communities together. The bringing together of this community is like a re-telling or a re-framing of our past rituals, amplified through props and play.
What happens when a trickster character from Wales’ folkloric past - the Mari Lwyd - becomes inhabited by playing children? What does it speak of the future?
