Drawing / Collage Workshop

Nofiwr o groen anifail / A swimmer in animal skin

Based on the exhibition, we'll creatively respond to medieval welsh descriptions of coracles, providing an insight into the medieval mind and the welsh language. We'll discover hybrid creatures and explore the more-than-human world.

Expect adventures in drawing, collaging, and writing - suitable for all ages and levels of experience.

All materials provided. Please arrive between 10:15 and 10:30, to see the exhibition and get settled in. Please email us with any physical or access requirements in advance and we'll do our best to accomodate.

------

The exhibition: The coracle is a traditional timber woven boat still used for fishing on three rivers in west Wales. The word “Wales” derives from the Anglo- Saxon word “wealas”, meaning foreigners or strangers. Sarah is interested in the medieval poetic descriptions of welsh coracles — Nofiwr o groen anifail / A swimmer in animal skin — alongside the descriptions in diaries of travelling English Victorians visiting ‘wild Wales’, who found the coracle folk very strange, roaming the land with boats on their backs. Charting a course through the Towy estuary in Llansteffan, the River Hafren / Severn through England, down to River Lea in Dalston, Sarah’s handmade coracle journeys through myth and history, human and amphibian.

------

The artist: Sarah Rhys is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in a rural estuary village in Carmarthen Bay, west Wales. Rhys’ work explores watery landscapes, ecologies of place and the more-than-human world. Since 2024 her main focus has been on the Towy coracle and it’s surrounding ecologies, including apprenticing herself to a local coracle fisherman.

Sarah has an MFA from Bath Spa University, and a BA QTS in Design Technology from UWE, Bristol. She is a member of PLaCE international , Space Place Practice, and is a Spike Island Associate.