In analysing the incredibly
positive and overwhelming number
of responses to the 2008 and
2010 events, Jones discovered
that people in the communities
in this part of Wales found
solace and comfort when they
were supported to create new
rituals around liminal or threshold
experiences in their lives. ‘Holy
Hiatus’ offered scope to address
that need.
’The Quick and the Dead’ (2014),
therefore, the most recent
project developed for ‘Holy
Hiatus’, will explore birth and
death rites. Jones is currently
focusing in particular on
forgotten or overlooked stories
of death and birth rituals in Wales,
through direct and experiential
engagement with communities.
As well as curating the programme
of events for this project, which
will include film screenings and
workshops, Jones is also working
on an acoustic contribution
which has been developed in
collaboration with acoustic singer
Lou Laurens.
This project will re-enact and
reclaim the experience of a
medical-technological labour using
the human voice. Taking a CTG scan
as a starting point, the bodily
rhythms of contractions, blood
pressure and a baby’s heart rate
will be translated from a 10ft long
paper trace into an acapella song
with multiple voices.
Profiled
Ciara Healy is a writer,
curator and book artist.
Until recently she was
the Head of Critical and
Contextual Studies at The
School of Creative Arts,
Coleg Sir Gar/University
of Wales Trinity Saint
David and is now Lecturer
in Art at the University of
Reading.
In 2011 she was one
of three writers to
be awarded Axisweb’s
Developing Critical Writing
on Contemporary Visual
Arts Programme. Since
then she’s written for
Art Review, Circa and This
is Tomorrow. She has also
written many exhibition
catalogue essays.
Ruth Jones and Andrea Williams,
Chwarel 2010, film installation with
5:1 surround sound
Ciara is currently
studying for a PhD at the
Place Research Centre,
University of the West
of England, Bristol, with
Dr. Iain Biggs under the
research title: The Thin
Perception: A proposal
for a new curatorial
approach in contemporary
art.
This visceral project, like Jones’s
other work, consistently attempts
to develop an awareness of the
fecundity of the margin, of the
latent possibilities of attending
more closely to what Virginia Woolf
once called ‘Earth Life’, in all its
mildewed, abandoned and dynamic
splendour. This is because Jones
believes rituals to be conduits for
the most transformative kinds of
embodiments.
ruthjonesart.co.uk >
holyhiatus.co.uk >
Partus, 2014 publicity image.
Collaboration with sonic artist Lou Laurens.
Ciara Healy, March 2014
NOTES FROM WALES | AUTUMN 2014 30