An interactive map is currently live on GaggleBabble’s new website, which includes a series of nine films and seven responses from artists and locals from the England/Wales border.
Award-winning Cardiff based theatre company Gagglebabble wanted to experiment with different ways of working and connecting with people and place during the first UK lockdown.
The company who specialise in music & theatre storytelling secured a stabilisation grant from the Arts Council of Wales, enabling co-founder Lucy Rivers to explore the Welsh & English border to walk, talk and remember while exploring identity, folklore, stories, get lost and then find the path again.
Wales Dramatic Landscape Captured In GaggleBabble Films
Following a call out to artists and locals living on the border, Lucy and filmmaker Siôn Marshall Waters were invited on nine walks. From August to October they immersed themselves in the dramatic landscape between Chepstow and Llangollen.
Lucy asked the artists who accompanied her on these walks for their creative responses to their walk and the results are all beautifully unique and personal. As everyone locks back down during this strange winter, GaggleBabble hope you enjoy these snapshots of the borders, and maybe when you re-emerge from hibernation you will be inspired to walk in their footsteps.
Experience “Wild Walks with Panoramas and Broad Horizons” Online
Artists involved include – Emma Daman Thomas (Islet), Remy Beasley (Stella, Tourist Trap), Chris Kinsey (From Rowan Ridge), Olivia Preye (Mandra), Robin Jones (Trials of Cato) and Tamzin Powell (The Witches Ways in the Welsh Borders).
GaggleBabble’s Lucy Rivers describes the project: ‘I find borders and boundaries interesting, and they certainly seem to attract a lot of drama and tension. I like drama and tension and being a border girl myself I thought it was fertile ground for exploration.
As Tamzin Powell said on our walk in the Wye valley… “Where there are two countries it’s like a crossroads – it’s a sacred place, a place where you can do magic, where your charms and spells can work, and it’s also a place of death”.
“I’ve had the desire to walk the Welsh/English border for a while but it took being locked down in my small terrace in Cardiff with a new baby that really made me yearn for wild walks with panoramas and broad horizons, and I was determined to make it happen as soon as we were allowed. We hope you enjoy exploring with us.’
How To Access GaggleBabble’s Borderlands Map
Borderlands is funded by Arts Council Wales and supported by Ludlow-based touring theatre company Pentabus, who have worked alongside GaggleBabble to produce the project.
Sophie Motley, Artistic Director of Pentabus says: ‘It has been a delight to support Gagglebabble with the making of Borderlands. 2020 has been a tricky year, particularly for the arts. Being able to help make this project happen has felt very special and has given Pentabus the opportunity to explore new ways of working and supporting artists.’
- To access GaggleBabble’s Borderlands map visit gagglebabble.co.uk/borderlands