Artists explore Celtic diaspora, pilgrimage and sacred places in Pembrokeshire and Wexford

Ancient Connections, a three-year arts, heritage and tourism project linking North Pembrokeshire and North Wexford, is pleased to announce the appointments of four artists.

The new art commissions will be 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 four artists are Seán Vicary, 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.

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.

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 upload photos of them on an online map.

She said: “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. “

Multi-media artist Seán recently discovered that his great-grandmother was born in 1874, just 3.5 miles from Ferns in Camolin, Co Wexford.

He said: “I want 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.”

Seán will be discovering ‘hidden narratives’ in the landscape and creatively working them into a 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.”

Trained archaeologist and visual artist John Sunderland will be undertaking a pilgrimage from Pembrokeshire to Wexford 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’.

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.

Sylvia said: “This commission is a superb opportunity to explore the interconnectedness of these two regions, creating haunting stories which will linger on in the minds of all who listen to them, no matter where in the world they live.”

Project Officer Ruth Jones added: “We are thrilled to have engaged four artists of such high calibre and are excited to see how their projects develop individually, and over time, how they interweave into one another as well as other aspects of the wider Ancient Connections project.”

Ancient Connections is led by Pembrokeshire County Council, together with partners Wexford County Council, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and Visit Wexford funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland Wales co-operation programme.

If you are interested in finding out more or getting involved in any aspect of the Ancient Connections project please email the team at AncientConnections@pembrokeshire.gov.uk