KITH
familiar country, place that one knows, kinsfolk, relations.
KITH was a participatory arts project run by Holy Hiatus that explored family, home, longing and belonging. What does it mean to be part of a ‘family’? How does one’s own identity change when the family shifts and changes – when people leave or arrive through birth, death or voluntary/involuntary separation? How does the passage of time alter our perception of family dynamics? What creative testaments could there be to powerful internal shifting processes, endurance and surrender to new realities?
We worked with participants from west Wales for who these themes resonated through creative writing. 13 participants took part, working either in Welsh with creative writing facilitator Rufus Musafa, or in English with creative writing & movement facilitator Tracy Breathnach Evans.
The words of the participants formed the script of a bilingual film. The film featured movement artist Indigo Tarran, who responded to the words of each participant, interacting with rural and post-industrial places in the landscapes of west Wales that were meaningful to the participants or resonated with their words. The music was recorded and performed by Matthew Bale (piano) and Lorna Osbon (violin).
The view the whole film, which is 21 mins long, please email holyhiatuswales@gmail.com for a link and password.
Audience responses to the film:
Very much a film of place and feeling about the landscape and people. The fusion of movement, music, poetry and intensity of image through the filming was clever in its ease of simplicity. Having said that, I would add highly enjoyable.
It was a wonderful event and the artistic quality was faultless. The film is beautiful, with layers of dancing, music and prose weaving through the landscape. It certainly did resonate with the themes of family, home, longing and belonging.
Atmospheric. Beautiful cinematography. Rich spoken word contributions. Excellent dancer. It tapped into emotions – Potent.
Excellent – wonderful filming of places I know and love, the actress conveyed emotion and I felt I may have responded in a similar way over the years that I have lived. It addressed the themes of family home, place, belonging and longing in a very welsh way. Cymru am byth.
Very nostalgic. Recalling Wales and family, loved the music, the movement. Highly appropriate locations. Even the English was very Welsh! It addressed the themes very well. It seems as if we all share, young and old a sense of our location, culture and family.
I found it very moving, the beauty of Wales became part of the story, binding the separate experiences together with the thread of the dancer’s movement. There were micro views that expanded to the universal. The music was beautiful.
I loved the film, it was really moving! It flowed effortlessly like a river or stream. Loved the connection to texture and the experiences of everyday tasks. That was very grounding, to kind of bring the viewer back to the present moment. A chance to forget what’s going on, what’s wrong with the world. It felt like there were many layers, music, visual…. I think you could watch it many times and find something new every time. Couldn’t get over how it was 20 minutes! It felt like 5!
The film felt very welsh and therefore familiar. It was really nice to hear different stories and bits of writing from the locals as well as watching Indigo dancing in these beautiful landscapes. I thought it was interesting that there was perhaps an age gap between Indigo and the writers and it felt like a comment on how we inherit stories and grow up with this welsh culture around us which so often includes lots of storytelling and art. It felt like Indigo really embodied the music, words and landscape and it all worked really well together. It made me feel proud to have been brought up in wales and to have all this art and culture around me.
KITH was a collaboration with People Speak Up in Llanelli, and was funded by Arts Council of Wales and Pembrokeshire County Council Support of the Arts.
