Wk 00, 14th of October, 2024
After a lot of mahi, and trial poems and lists of poems that weren't right, I decided on this collection of key elements to structure my poem for the vinyl cut on the gallery space window.
mānuka is a hearty variety that grows well in the heat of summer, and blooms most abundant-like in spring. mānuka begins the poem as it is the historical link to the whenua of my foraging grounds for gleaning my matter for work. I forage across mt eden-mt cecelia park, where the mānuka would have grown thick and in tuffs in the landscape, so I honour mānuka first in my poem. secondly, the mānuka flower shape (as I have unpacked in a later blog post) is distinctly the same shape as hawthorn, the mayflower that heralds in the springtime's coming, and the summer's burst of energy in the Celtic landscape. thus my inclusion of this flower form in many of my hanging charms.
calan mai, or calan haf, is the Welsh (Cymric) term for mayflowers festival or Beltane. this ritual of creating offerings happens in may (in the northern hemisphere), yet could be practiced by welsh decedents like myself in November (as this links the two areas seasonally). This tradition often involves the tying of ribbons, using may poles, the giving of offerings on altars or stones and the gathering of people.
pāua, links with the beads and shells in my hanging charms, and was often gleaned on beaches in my nana's girlhood which links her to the seaside town of Barry, where she grew up in Wales.
glimmer, glimmering, shining: this is an intention of the whole exhibition. the reflection of the welsh term 'teg' the lightness which has layers of meanings.
a careful heart, relates to pākeha ways of being in nature, there needs to be respect for whenua, on the heavily planted soils of Tāmaki Makaurau, additionally my objects hold a lot of delicateness.
dôn, is the welsh earth mother, she has a genealogical link in welsh prose tales. she is like papa.
I have put the comma at the end of the writing to suggest perhaps a further editing or an openness in poetic voice.
some variations of this poetic theme that I am trialling:
ashley singer, 2024, poetic trials for the wall/window vinyl
having done further research into calan haf (also historically called Cyntefin), this festival that signifies the beginning-ness of summer and the end of spring is a celebration of this segment of the seasonal calendar.
overall, this years exploration into poetic notational practices (generative photography, sculpture-making, installation practice) and botanical folklores has led me to the time of the year: calan haf.
I am coming to sense that this may be a bittersweet time, as this part of the season isn't celebrated in it's traditional form by my family despite our welsh heritage, to me, perhaps this exhibition being the 'thin place' where this seasonal festival is revealed.
aptly, I am looking at using this poem, as a summation:
the last dream of calan haf
the pagan calendar in times of the Southern Hemisphere (online source)
I wanted to add this here as throughout the video this welsh folklorist often clarifies with the beings in the mabinogi (Y Mabinogi) that meaning changes in welsh drastically through the change of one simple letter. We have seen this with Blodeuedd (flower maiden) into Blodeuwedd (Flower face, Owl), the U being replaced with W signifies great change of being in the tale.
This is another important way that welsh speakers make meaning phonetically, and emphasises the careful consideration that must be given to all language around my practice.
This perhaps leads us to unpack Tylwyth Teg also, with the first word: tylwyth meaning folk, and the term teg (which I have alluded to in the past) really meanings lightness, fairness (as in moral), luminosity. Perhaps one can see fae or fairies (the welsh Celtic entities) as viewable as buds of light in nature, this adds to the conjugal mysticism coming from mystery and mist.
In such a way that language differs and is impactful to meaning on a granular level, so to is the materiality of the matter I am working with, the problem solving and decisions I am making in making processes and what leads the completion of a work.
To me, when meaning and materials align a work is completed (in poems the materials are your words used, and the punctuation, fonts etc) (in my hanging charms materials are the beads, or things I am threading into the string/wire) (in my floor works it is largely the materials of the earth or the insect i.e. waxes, clays, sediments, bronzes, flowers dried). Making meaning comes from these materials only in that my practice revolves around language. Using a glass bead vs a plastic one is a complex of a decision as using a letter in welsh writing. Signifiers I often use and return to are: butterflies, the spiral/tendril, the garden as a space for fae and meaning making, closing the gap between trees and a contemporary re- digestion of botanical folklores (from middle wales, oracles, te ao māori, celtic folk stories/prose tales from bards).
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6ZsJJZorXi/?igsh=MWUyOHl5bmZseWQ2NA==
The fecundity of this time of year, the southern hemispheres equivalent to Beltane or in Welsh Calan Haf (or Mai meaning May), so May Day. Where the anything rushing and shooting into bloom and growth.
I was talking to a fellow masters student Esther who was explaining the māori linguistic version of teg that comes from the naming of leaves. She said: It's rau which means leaf as a whole word but ra refers to the sun/rays and u is an amplifier so it the whole word is kinda about how the light dances off of the leaves.
After working with my friend and design student Ashleigh Lowe we were able to fulfil the vinyl print requirements for the Make Shop printing for the poem on the wall/window.
I was then able to discuss with her the font, colour and style of the poem and how I wanted it to look customizing it on Adobe Illustrator.
We then were able to format it to be able to be printed with the printing company and I had to select some vinyl to bring in for printing.
This is how the final formatted document looks for sending off to the printers.
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