Raft
Capel Curig, Snowdonia 2019
The idea of the raft grew out of Egin, a National Theatre Wales residency in a remote corner of Snowdonia National Park. The residency brought together artists from across Wales and around the world to create a new temporary community exploring climate crisis in relation to this place and in a wider global context. You can find out more about the residency and listen to a wonderful set of podcasts here.
I was particularly struck during my time in Snowdonia about how we view and use landscape, and how time works differently for non human entities. If only we could slow down, we might be able to find equilibrium again.
I am interested in where we can find hope in this crisis, how we can inspire people to reconnect with the natural landscape and to refine our natural place within it – not in the dominant position we have assumed, but as simply one cog in the great wheel of the eco system. It’s my belief that if you care for something, you don’t break it, and it’s that feeling of care that I want to inspire in audiences. Paul Allen, a researcher at the Centre for Alternative Technology suggested that the most important thing is to find “things that make the heart sing”, so that is the approach I have taken. There is always hope and change is possible- the slate tips being reclaimed by moss, lichen, and tiny trees pushing their way through are an example of this.
The raft seeks to offer a space to contemplate the vastness of the natural world, and the smallness of our place as humans within it. It was built entirely by hand with materials found within half a mile of its launching place, and these materials were returned to the forest after the event, to fulfil their original purpose of firewood or of homes for beetles and fungi. It is hoped that this project might be further developed, with plans for a series of coracles as reflection spaces across the country.
