Lichen Dreaming

Lichen Dreaming

A day of lichen imaginings at Gregynog on 16 March 11-4

Led by movement artist Simon Whitehead (Abercych, CYM), the day will include:

A Lichen Dreaming - a place to dream and rest with lichen; a sound installation featuring recent field recordings of Lichen colonies in Coetir Tycanol, Pembrokeshire

Including a newly commissioned lichen score by Barnaby Oliver (Melbourne, AUS) for Hafren Community Choir (Newtown, CYM)

With contributions from Harpist Ceri Owen-Jones (Ceinewydd, CYM) and Cai Tomos, movement artist, (Caersws, CYM) with Cain, a group of elder performers from galeri (Caernarfon, CYM) responding to the installation and the temporal and haptic qualities of lichen.

In addition, an Oriel Davies curated programme of Lichen films, including Becoming Lichen (an Oriel Davies commission by Ellie Orrell (Newtown, CYM)) and a new Natur am Byth commissioned film by boredomresearch, exploring Bryophytes, a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (Southampton, ENG) and students at Newtown College.

A Lichen movement session for all on the lawn led by Simon Whitehead.

Nature Walks with Ellie Baggett (Natur am Byth/ Plantlife) and Josie Bridges (Natur am Byth) exploring the extensive Gregynog woodlands in search of unusual Lichen.

Information tables for Natur am Byth, Oriel Davies, Gregynog and Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust.

Plus: ‘Adopt a Lichen’ for the day

Supported by Arts Council of Wales & Natur am Byth

boredomresearch has been commissioned as part of the Natur am Byth Arts Engagement Programme Associate Artist Residencies which aim to connect more people to nature and inspire new ways of seeing endangered species. A collaborative project between Natural Resources Wales (NRW), nine environmental charities, Public Health Wales (PHW) and Addo, and is funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council of Wales.

Gregynog visitor information

Becoming Lichen

To touch lichen is to touch something that pre-exists our human lifetimes, peer closely and you see that they are all distinctly and mysteriously themselves, made up of many collaborating lifeforms. Crustose, Foliose, Fruticose - lichens thrive everywhere, on buildings, trees, rocks, road signs and gravestones.

As a movement artist, I’m interested in how the slow growth of lichens, their symbiosis and adherence to the earth might inform gentle movement, inner meditative practices and cultivate soft bodily resilience to the stresses of current times. For Becoming Lichen I am adopting lichens as my ‘more than human mentors’. Attempting to notice and learn from them and the places in which they thrive, to move as lichen is to combine our differences, to be together in ways that we couldn’t if alone, to make something complex, unusual.

I am currently learning how to record the sounds of lichens, in an attempt to ‘feel’ into their vibrational relations with other beings and the ecosystems in which they live.

I think that lichens give us reasons to be cheerful; they combine differences, live as composites, their longevity perhaps, gives us hope.

Lichen Dreaming is a culmination of this first period of research, a celebration of lichen life on this western edge of Europe, where these lifeforms thrive.

We welcome you to Gregynog for a day of interspecies dreamtime and an opportunity to re-imagine our relationships to these ancient and resilient beings.