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Bardsey Island 2002 |
artist(s):
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Susan Adams |
| location |
Bardsey Island [north Wales] |
| completed |
January 2002 |
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from 'Waiting for Something' by Susan Adams; "For me the residency was a great success. It was an intensive period of working in one of the most social environments I've ever been. When I visited the island prior to the residency and saw the shed in which I was to live I must confess that I was horrified, it was dark, damp and full of old mattresses! However, it was cleared out by the time the residency began and I came to love it so much that when a cottage became available in September I had no desire at all to move. Being near the Trust shop, the church and the archaeological dig it was the best place to be in terms of meeting people, visitors and islanders alike. I was lucky enough to have quite a long conversation with an elderly gentleman who had been born on the island, and could remember so much about the stable I was living in even down to the resident horses' names and foibles.
arrival
On the bright August morning of my departure for Ynys Enlli I had met a young woman travelling around Europe on her own. Despite my ardent persuasion that she should come and visit she was adamant that she would not leave dry land for a place that has been known for centuries as a waiting place between life and death. And yes, as your boat is buffeted around by the Sound's conflicting currents mid-way between the tip of the Lleyn peninsula and the island, fear jostling with elation spreads all over you. At first you see no sign of human life as the island hunches its steep mountainous back against the peninsula. Once you have rounded the mountain you no longer see the main land, you have passed into another world.
I arrived on Ynys Enlli with the framework of a plan: 30 paintings for 30 days, a video and sculpture about the search for St Isiona, an invisible presence who had written questions on pebbles to St Loge in an earlier piece "Escape from the Woodshed". The "island of 20 thousand saints" would offer me a sign, a vision, leaving me with a clear picture of what should happen in the work. |
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The Residency;
I am attracted to the way the narrative of a saint's life casually blends historical fact, fantastic events and the visionary. A saint is an individual whose life has been transfixed into a message. Their ascetic practice and suffering is a critique of society yet their icon status brings communities together, we need our sacrificial victims so that we may be united in pity and shame. The idea of Isiona is not so much a person but the idea of a quest for something invisible that ties real people and events together. However, one aspect of Isiona is narrative so the first thing I did was to carve a marionette of her.
The island is self-selecting of the people who come to it because its so difficult to get to, everyone seemed unusual in some way, friendly and open with their thoughts. Its no surprise that they are an important part of the work as people appear bigger on a small island. They appear in the paintings "as saints" waiting for the touch of something Other. I interviewed a lot of people, asking them the following questions:
What are you looking for here?
Do you believe that a place can be spiritual?
Have you had any significant dreams here?
Do you believe in life after death?
Do you believe in saints?
If you had a personal/patron saint, who would they be?
What is your criteria for sainthood?
Have you heard of Saint Isiona?
It became apparent that most who came to the island were looking for something and some indeed were looking for nothing. I became fascinated with the idea of waiting, and finding ... Nothing; not as a negative but as a zenith that mystics strive for.
I was never so aware as on Ynys Enlli of the process and the journey being more important than arrival. My ideas were continually being blown apart by my new found life-in-the-present. Isiona is like a riddle - boring once it is guessed - it just didn't seem relevant to actually find her. The island too, was very difficult to pin down, despite its sometimes violent history it could possess an almost veil-like quality, between this world and somewhere else. In the paintings the island becomes transparent and the colours washed-out, whereas the people are very solid and vibrant.
I was fascinated by the 'hermitage' where the last island hermit lived, Sister Mary Helen. The desire for an authoritative voice from an outer realm can sometimes be so strong that the human mind can find a 'Sign' in almost anything. In later years when isolation had got the better of her, Sister Mary Helen would strictly adhere to the directions given by God as to what she must have for dinner, or where to cut gorse that day. My interest in the arbitrary nature of what can be read as a 'Sign' suggested a video/action piece that I carried out in the last week. In one of the out-houses still sits the home-made cart that Sister Helen Mary used for collecting gorse for burning. I borrowed it and filled it with pebbles with answers written on the reverse side, and dressed up as St Isiona I went around the island offering people to select an answer to their question.
The purpose of the archaeological dig that was going on near my stable was to find .... nothing. If there was nothing there, the field could be used as a new burial ground to raise desperately-needed funds for the Trust. At the same time I had been trying valiantly to avoid using driftwood because its too beautiful, too abundant and distinctly cliché, so Mick (island caretaker) one evening pushed one of his prize pieces my way as a challenge! Ignoring the distinctly dolphin shape I made it into a tomb in the medieval style with a little window for the head to look out. It bears the epitaph Is there a state of Nothing? and it was only a few months afterwards that I realised I had made my own grave.
The video that includes the interviews with islanders and visitors will also tell the story of St Isiona. In some ways this is a prequel to my video St Loge (Escape from the Woodshed), the link is as follows:
St Isiona and St Loge
St Isiona was ship-wrecked on Ynys Enlli en route to Ireland circa 577. Some nine years later under the name of Isabelle she is reputed to have arrived in the Americas, where she died in isolation. Her emblems are fire and stones, after her miraculous recovery from deaths via the same. When in 1989 a female skeleton was dug up in a forest in Austerlitz, New York, the precise region where legend places her final demise, a strange series of events occurred. One of these was the appearance of mystical questions written in white ink on pebbles, for example "Is there a language in dust?" and "Is there a state of nothing?" At the same time a pile of ashes in the shape of a small log was found on an un-burnt section of forest floor. Could it be that a log had simply burst into flames?
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Conclusion;
My time on Ynys Enlli was very rewarding in a way that was a surprise to me. It was a period in which seeds have been planted for looking at my subject matter in a different way. I have been interested in saints, hermits and the idea of spirit of place for a while now, so it was natural that my reaction to Enlli would not be contained within the 6 week residency period.
Towards the end of the residency I gave a talk about my work that was very well-attended and questions and discussion went on long into the night. I had such an enriching time on the island and I hope I enriched other people's experience in some way too. It was good to have Fflur Dafydd, 2002 writer-in-residence there at the same time to discuss ideas and approach."
Waiting for Something an exhibition of the work inspired by the residency has been shown at Ruthin Craft Centre and Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno. A colour brochure to accompany the exhibition was also produced.
More information and other documentation
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Video clip:
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