Afon Reflections

“I experienced Afon to be a refreshing confluence of people, place, practices and ideas. The invitation to experiment and be responsive was a rare and valuable chance to work with what emerged in the time and place. Simon and Stirling held this space with complete trust, care, and generosity. The event was well organised and communicated. It was one of my favourite experiences of the year and I came away with much learning and inspiration.” Saffy Setohy

“...it was such a wonderful invitation and opportunity to spend time with the river and in that site. I felt really free to listen and trust in making, which is quite unique and I think speaks of the generous and open spirit of the festival which is a lot to do with how you and Stirling are, as well as the community you have brought together. That has really stuck with me and I've been thinking a lot about community and its role in creativity and creative freedom since being home.” Jo Hellier

“The process and legacy of the work has, for me, created a keen sense of connection to the river and the surrounding area, a feeling of being part of the artistic continuum existing in the teifi valley. A community and practice connecting us all both locally and to the wider cultural landscape.” – Jacob Whittaker

“Thank you for sending this appraisal of the village response to the Wooden Boulder film. To receive an email like this is so rewarding. The Boulder story seems to engage with so many people and they tend to emotionally invest in the narrative. I have come to realise the Boulder belongs to the everybody.” – David Nash

"As Artist in Residence for AFON 2019 I was able to truly immerse myself in my practice. The residency was more than I had anticipated; the cottage, the greenery, the waterways and the community kept me transfixed, energised, enlivened and inspired.

I didn’t realise how much I needed the quiet gentle wild solitude to restore my creative energy! The community were so open to participating in swimming with me, taking me to their special hidden swimming spots and sharing their stories whilst I photographed them and the water.

I installed my MA Moving Image piece ‘Immerse’ in the cottage (with full technical support provided as part of residency) yet went beyond this to create new projected work entitled ‘AFON’ (Welsh for ‘river’).

The residency pushed me to make and share work publicly within the space of a week – which was new for me (the quick turnaround). It was a joy and privilege to reflect back photographically to the community a new vision of their underwater world and to connect with other AFON artists and their interpretations of the incredibly special surroundings."

“Friday 13th, first evening, a village hall full of folk- we need more chairs- a local river song, 13 ingredient cookies and the film Stones Have Laws…and they do, don’t they? All ages turn up for an early morning swim beneath the waterfall- Annwn, bodies of water, meandering journeys, spontaneous exchanges, a community of river people… a film of an oak boulder in the playground, river films in the pub lounge, films in the hall and swimmers in front rooms… a man types a poem to the river on the bridge, a woman appears with yoke and buckets of water, asks questions and grants wishes and disappears… there are workshops, people move with the rivers questions…there is good food, a woman washes children’s clothing in the Cych and hangs it under the bridge, by the pub, drying in the afternoon sun… a dancer performs care in the village hall… at the end of the day, at the full moon, we dance together with Carreg Bica and another dancer shares his fears of a changing climate… Sunday morning river DJ, a vinyl floor, children handling old records and listening to rivers, good coffee and pastries… a walk to the Cych again and we witness a dancer in synergy with river- eddies, reflections, currents and planetary forces- collective awe…walking back to Abercych in the quiet and after a last visit to 2 Penrhiw to the underwater swimmers in the parlour we drive to Poppit- a last swim together- artists, public, children looking out to the wider horizon and a dancer steps on a weaver fish- a rush to find boiling water, the inner dance as the pain subsides and then again, we follow the river home…" Simon Whitehead

“The offer of performing at afon presented me with a precious opportunity to distil and articulate years of river thoughts and river feelings (accumulated in the course of researching a prose book centred around Afon Teifi) into a flowing, multi-layered piece of poetry. Having written my eponymous piece (afon) over a series of weeks especially for the festival, on the day itself I chose to type it on the banks of the river on my old typewriter. One of the purposes of this was to mirror Teifi’s own gentle summer pace: in an age of fast, cheap and ephemeral words, to manually and patiently type out the poem, adding an audible rhythm to the water’s own music, seemed a respectful way to honour the small ale-brown gods of the river world. Writing as meditation; copying out words in blue ink as a prayer. The sun beat down and, thudded letter by thudded letter, the poem began to emerge:

I have been many times

to the sources

in the hills

close to the centre

of Wales where grooves in the peat

channel and merge

and form the first flows

that join and grow and gather

to pool together

into Llyn Teifi.

I have seen the skylarks and the ravens there,

the kites circling above vast plateaus of moor grass

I have followed the way of the river

down from the hills, through sleepy farmland, to the sea.

As the afternoon drew on and I came towards the end of copying out the poem, a gust of wind snatched the original notes from my desk and spun them aloft out over the water to merge silently with the wet membrane of Teifi’s silken surface. Off they drifted, downstream. My typed poem was left incomplete. The river, it seemed, would have the last say: “What’s with all the writing? To know me, slip in.” – Jack Smylie Wilde

“I found the experience enriching and stimulating. I planned to wash baby clothes and nappies to highlight the unmarried mother not being accepted in a small Welsh community. I spoke to a number of women who all were excited by the idea and confirmed the best place was where the river is accessible, by the pub and the landlord agreed for me to do it there. Two of the women I had spoken to came and watched me. I think it was centuries ago that women washed clothes in the river as women described a big tin bath by the house was what they remembered. The experience has set me off on another project to do with women’s equality in Wales.” – Penny Jones

“It was really special to be invited to share my Movements of Care work at Afon Festival. I admire Simon, Stirling and Maynards team for curating a festival that really is in relation with the local people and surrounding environment and attempts to build awareness around ways that being with the local could connect you to the global. It was my first experience of being part of a festival where it felt like the local environment, people and invited artists could all be involved in performing and being an audience. Sometimes the river was the audience, sometimes it was performing. It was great how the festival could be responsive to everyone and everything and gave space to explore, be curious, be in conversation. I enjoyed being able to have relaxed encounters with a balance of art works that were made on site over the festival days or have had a long life. The Maynard team have a gift at hosting generous spaces to encounter trust, learning and ways into creating or thinking new.” – Katherine Hall