Vicky Best

My proposal for the Mawddach Residency:
‘I was born and bred in Bolton (Bowl-town). I have a pull towards hills and have grown up surrounded by them. Sometimes they have felt looming and sometimes my protectors. My proposal ‘a love letter to the hills’, is a cumulative story told through film and 35 mm stills and hopefully, collaboration.’

Past this I didn’t really have a clear intention - this experience was unlike anything else I had ever done. I didn’t know what my outcome would be, I didn’t know what the rhythm of my days would look like and I didn’t know what I would be able to make with my hurriedly ordered Tesco delivery or what I would use the projector compact amongst my clothes in my suitcase for.

Met at the station by Jake and Scarlett and the trusty wagon for carrying luggage. We were greeted by the sea air and the spectacular view of the Mawddach landscape and surrounding hills. Surrounded by the hills we had tea and biscuits and huge helping of gratitude, much of my uncertainly was put to rest by the encouragement of Jake and Scarlett and replaced with excitement.

In my first week I wanted to be guided by interest and intrigue, I wanted the ideas I had to have the room to breath and grow without the pressure of them becoming a fully realised idea. Almost like strands of lace being woven into a fabric. I felt inspired by the house on Mawddach Crescent, by Jake and Scarlett and Katie (my fellow resident) and by the landscape. I wanted to capture it all, I didn’t want to miss any opportunity or idea that might arise; an equally overwhelming and encouraging place to begin. Like a forager I begin collecting material, I ventured out with my camera with some visual themes; corner stones of my practise. Landscape, recreative/ reflection, texture, movement/change. My first week became a process of capturing, reviewing and responding.

The newness of the experience felt deserving of a newness in approach. I quickly I realised that I didn’t want to make a film, which seems bold or rather sacrilegious as a filmmaker to declare. It didn’t feel conducive to the time I had and the freedom that the residency afforded. Reviewing and responding to the material that I gathered I was struck with the image of hills and ‘hill like’ images. Something simplistic if not obvious, focused my eye, a triangle with its peak in the middle of the frame. With some perspective shifts most things fell into this framing, whether it be a rock, a floorboard or a coaster. I played around with my footage editing and cutting them together layering images and making connections. I projected these on to the walls of the studio using my projector as a way to view it outside of my laptop screen. And played around with projecting it onto different surfaces, texture and angles. I enjoyed how the exterior images interacted with the interior space.

Along side this I began to develop a textile piece, in some ways trying to immerse myself in the location from the windowsill in the studio, and began to stitch the landscape, which I named unimaginatively my ‘fabric foto’. It was a very natural process and the longer it went on the more committed I was to it - I didn’t know how I was going to ‘use it’. I set some boundaries around the construction of this piece, I would only stitch using the actual landscape as my reference, meaning this was only done during the daylight, speaking to the feeling of nowness and presence of this experience at large. I listened to podcasts and essays about North Wales - by the Welsh writer Jon Gower and through him Welsh poet and writer Ceiriog and his poem Aros A Myned (The great mountains remain).

‘The hills are moving’
This line of the essay really encouraged a perspective shift for me. My whole thinking and impulse to undertake this residency in this location was my perspective of hills, the ones surrounding me as I grew up, these ever present beings. I liked the contrast between our perspective and the reality.
I was also still gathering material and doing projector tests around the flat and the studio. And from this a
rhythm emerged with my work. Stitching in the daytime and projector experiments in the evening/nighttime. Upon this reflection it is clear to see why these two elements became integral to my final piece.

As the second week commenced, with a day off walking around Barmouth and watching Chloe Zoo films, I concerned myself with sculpting my findings into some sort of ‘final form’. A way to present what I had been working on.. not that it had to be a fully formed and realised film. Nevertheless, it felt really important to me that things were rounded off/ presented. I wanted to mark the occasion.
The final form was visually being realised and I became concerned with the sound. In someways it seemed counter intuitive to contrast the stillness that the Mawddach and Arthog had offered (with the exception of Arthog Waterfalls). Jon Gower’s words had struck me and so I thought that would be an appropriate place to start from. I gently began scripting the piece selecting sections of the essay I wanted to explore. And from this I thought about adding my voice into the piece. I was hesitant to do this feeling like it would become too self indulgent but I realised that this was a deeply personal experience and this felt like the only way to demonstrate that. This went through a couple of iterations, I tried to make this something more humorous bit it seemed to cheapen the thoughtfulness of Gower’s words and my own collecting of material.

As my residency was drawing to a close, it seemed to sharpen my mind and clarify what I was working towards. With two clear themes: The hill-like and Conversation (not only ‘between’ myself and Gower, but between the feelings of permanence and impermanence, interior and exterior spaces, hard and soft textures, natural and human made.)

Organically my textile piece found it's way into an installation on my final evening at Mawddach Residency. On the landing I set up my project, projecting the film I had made on to the apex of the ceiling where two walls met at the corner of the stares. I positioned the projector in such a way that the image itself was distorted and looked hill-like in its own right. I had done previous experimentation with mirrors, testing out reflections and how images were distorted and enhanced. I really wanted to emphasis the perspective of my work. I put a mirror along the wall opposite the projector as another way to view the film. On the landing I set up a stained glass lamp with a mirror under it to reflect some of the light onto the ceiling and on this mirror I put left over thread from my fabric foto as a way to add texture to the reflection. On a desk I set up my fabric photo along with some slate that I had collected from the beach.

I had assigned 3 spots where the installation could be viewed. I wanted to interact with the space and capture the moment as it was there and then, allowing Katie, Scarlett and Jake into my head and into my perspective and portrayal of the landscape. This also encouraged some really lovely post installation screening discussion of landscape and perspective.

It has been over a month since my time at Mawddach Residency ended and I am longing to go back, everything felt important and considered and cared for. Down to the shared pasta and cheesy leeks, the portrait sessions, life drawing classes, yoga and the discussions over cake and tea. It was all so refreshing, altering the pace of my day. I read two books in 2 weeks something I have never done, or maybe allowed myself to do.

All this I guess is to say that the talent, kindness, patience and encouragement I found there has propelled me into this next phase of creativity feeling inspired and confident, enabling myself to call myself an artist. I have a new perspective of my craft, my capability and what it will look like moving forward.

Vicky Best
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